7th Annual Lakes Jam Comes To Brainerd Lakes Area

Tens of thousands of people will descend on the Brainerd Lakes Area this weekend for the annual Lakes Jam. This is the festival’s 7th year, and organizers say every year it gets bigger and better.

Every summer during the last weekend in June, music lovers descend on the Brainerd Lakes Area and Brainerd International Raceway for the four-day music festival.

“Look at the crowd. Hotels are booked. Everything is booked. Restaurants are packed,” said Travis Banks, Lakes Jam talent acquirer. “It’s great.”

This year, the festivities started on Wednesday with the gates opening with Thursday and Friday featuring country artists and Saturday focusing on rock ‘n’ roll.

“We’re unlike most festivals. We’re a combination of country and rock. So we’ve got two nights of country and then one night of rock. We got Fuel, Collective Soul, 3 Doors Down,” explained Lakes Jam general manager Ken Lacy. “For a three-day lineup, we believe that’s the strongest three-day lineup we’re ever put out.”

Lakes Jam was founded in 2012 in order to bring a fun, new music experience that would appeal to a wide variety of music lovers.

“The original founder was a guy named Jerry Braam and he came up with the idea and decided to give it a try out here, and it’s kind of morphed from the original days when it was really small to the event that it is today,” said Tom Ryan, BIR chief financial officer.

Music is not the only thing you can find at Lakes Jam, and these extras are what make the festival particularly unique.

“Where else do you get to go watch someone race snowmobiles on water and then go do some car drifting and lawnmower racing? Then you got poker tournaments again, bean bag tournaments,” Lacy added. “We’re more than a music festival, is what we like to say.”

Each year Lakes Jam gets a little bigger, and organizers hope the festival keeps growing well into the future.

“We’ve got great music, we’ve got a great venue. We have just a lot of stuff going on. If you haven’t been here, you got to come check it out at least one time,” Banks said.

“It’s going to be a great lineup of music and a lot of fun,” added Ryan. “People are going to have a great time.”

Tickets are still available for Lakes Jam and can be bought online or at the door.