North Loop’s NBNL Music Fest abruptly canceled after poor sales and a mandated name change

After a legally mandated name-change to a confusing acronym, the downtown Minneapolis block party formerly known as the North by North Loop Music Fest has gone south. The second installment scheduled Sunday outside Graze Provisions + Libations was canceled Thursday with only three days’ notice.

Rebranded as the NBNL Music Fest due to trademark infringement claims by the South by Southwest Music Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, the eight-hour, seven-band event was to feature an all-local music lineup headed by the Suburbs and featuring Bad Bad Hats, the Flamin’ Ohs, Laamar, Makr an Eris and more. It was in line to be the second biggest musical block party in Minneapolis’ downtown corridor this year after the highly attended Taste of Minnesota.

“All of our musicians and staff are sad that we won’t be celebrating the start of fall with you,” read an announcement posted on NBNL’s social-media accounts Thursday, which promised refunds to ticketholders within a week.

While the public notice offered no explanation, NBNL event organizer Maureen McDowall confirmed that poor ticket sales were a deciding factor. The event had only 150 followers on Eventbrite, where its tickets were being sold for $35.

“There has just been so many festivals in Minneapolis and St. Paul this year, we may have just hit saturation,” said McDowall, who noted that the event did much better on the same weekend last year with a lineup headed by Lissie. “We’ve been flummoxed.”

McDowall did not want to comment on the name-change required by SXSW’s team and the impact it may have had.

Despite the bad news, she and her roster of North Loop businesses and supporters apparently aren’t ready to call it quits on the fest yet — whatever name they’re calling it. They ended Thursday’s cancellation announcement with, “Hope to see you in 2025.”

“We’re going to take a look and learn” from this year, McDowall said.