Inaugural Bend of the River Fall Festival draws crowds

Sep. 18—The first Bend of the River Fall Festival drew a good crowd Saturday at the Minnesota State University campus, with the organizer already planning for a bigger and better annual festival.

"I'm hoping for about 5,000 people this year, but would like to get 15,000 coming in future years," said promoter Jerry Braam.

The outdoor festival, located next to Blakeslee Stadium, featured family activities during the day, including a cornhole tournament, food and merchandise vendors and other activities. The afternoon and evening featured bands including CMA New Artist of the Year Jimmie Allen, New Female Artist nominee Priscilla Block, Jason Nix and local band IV Play.

Mankato native Braam also operates the Twin Cities Summer Jam held in Shakopee as well as other major concert events. Bringing a new event to Mankato and MSU came about from a number of Mankato connections. "About 2 1/2 years ago at the Summer Jam I was standing with (Mankato developer) Mike Drummer and (director of MSU athletics) Kevin Buisman and they said, 'Why don't you bring something like this to Mankato?' "

Another Mankato native, Robin James, also works with Braam at his promotion company.

"We wanted to do something philanthropic, too, so we partnered with several high schools and they sold tickets for the festival if they wanted and we give back 25% of each ($40) ticket to the schools," Braam said.

About a dozen area schools took part this year and Braam wants to recruit more area schools for next year's event.

"I'd love to give $100,000 or so a year to local schools. I never heard of a concert allowing schools to sell tickets and I wanted to do that."

He said that while a first-time event can be financially risky, even losing money, they pledged to give $50,000 to the participating schools this year, whether the event makes money or not.

Braam, a 1985 East High school grad, spent a career in law enforcement, including as a state trooper and finishing his career as the chief of police in Pequot Lakes. He then started a security firm, providing security for concerts and events, then decided to own his own events and contract to manage other events around the Midwest.

"So my big thing is safety and security and putting on good concerts."

He said the Bend of the River Fall Festival was a "Level A" event, including a large stage and jumbotron video system he uses at his other major concerts. "I just want to set the tone so people know we're going to do a quality event. This is a great place to do it at MSU with lots of grass and lots of parking."

The festival was sponsored by Kwik Trip, with support from community businesses including Orthopaedic and Fracture Clinic, Tailwind Group, Taylor Corp, Drummer Companies, BLK Electric, Community Bank, Pioneer Bank and Scheels.

Before the music started up, people could attend for free, visiting the vendors and taking part in a cornhole tournament.

Jason Malmanger, of St. Peter, and his son Jordan took part in the tournament but decided to play in the social tournament rather than the competitive event. "We don't play a lot and there's a lot of really good players in the competitive event so we decided to do the noncompetitive one," Jason said.

Juan Moreno, of Central Minnesota Cornhole in St. Cloud, helped put on the MSU event. "We've been doing the competitive play for 8 years around the state. It's gotten more and more popular in the last 5 years."

All of the entry money — $40 per team for the competitive level and $20 for the social event — is paid back to the top teams that take part in the double-elimination tournament.

Moreno is part of the "Mexicutioners Nation" cornhole team and they sponsor and/or play in tournaments around Minnesota about once a month. Moreno's son Max, 16, is in his first year of competitive play and took part in the MSU event Saturday.

Juan Moreno said the Super Bowl of cornhole tournaments is held annually in California, with more than 1,000 teams participating for a $30,000 top prize.

"We've gone to that the last few years. The last two years we finished 25th. We got $3,000. We just treat it like a vacation, bring the whole family along, it's a lot of fun."