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Mayor credits Festival of the Lakes for strong crowds, announces refunds for blocked ticket-holders
Summary
Mayor reported large attendance and healthy revenue at Festival of the Lakes, acknowledged crowd-control and parking problems at free headline shows, and said the city will refund patrons who can prove they purchased tickets but were unable to enter.
The mayor opened his report by calling the 2026 Festival of the Lakes "a really, really good night" for the city, citing multiple large crowds and solid revenue. "We had 9,000 people attend freestyle night," he said, and later described one headline day as drawing "over 21,000 people" and another as about 17,000. He also credited the beer garden and ticket sales: "We sold close to 800,000 worth of tickets, $70,000 in the beer garden alone," the mayor said.
Council members pressed the mayor on access and parking after reports that some paying customers were blocked out of free headline shows by overwhelming crowds. The mayor acknowledged the problem and described the city's remedy: "We agreed to refund everybody that could prove to us that they bought a ticket and they couldn't get into a show," he said, adding refunds will be processed for patrons who can show tickets or parking that were not scanned. The administration said it has already begun issuing refunds to individuals who contacted City Hall.
The council discussed logistical fixes for the festival site. The mayor said D Lot was damaged by rain and will be made more serviceable before next year without paving the park, and councilmembers suggested targeted programming changes to reduce crowd-control issues for certain headline genres. The mayor called the festival a success overall but acknowledged it created "a lot of work" for police and staff and pledged operational reviews to avoid repeat problems.
