Rebooted WE Fest gives Minnesota country fans a defiantly good time

DETROIT LAKES – For a music festival where fans often can't remember the night before, WE Fest's comeback year involved a surprising amount of nostalgia.

In Thursday's headlining slot, Florida Georgia Line's members reminisced about their first time playing northwestern Minnesota's nationally renowned country music marathon.

"We played and then we drank, and then we played and then we drank," Tyler Hubbard recalled of their two-set/one-day 2012 debut.

Friday's big finisher, Dierks Bentley, harked back to his 2008 entry into "the wide world of WE Fest" and handed out a cooler's worth of beer cans from the stage to celebrate his and everyone's return.

"Thanks for making my dreams come true year after year, especially after the year we had," he said.

This year marked a new era — as well as a decent lineup of newcomers. But WE Fest 2021 also seemed to be as much about celebrating the good ol' days.

The headliners' nostalgic banter was echoed by many of the 20,000-plus daily attendees. Most of the fans were happy just to have the festival back, and under new, semi-local management.

Last year's installment had been canceled even before COVID-19 hit, following five years under an interim owner based in Connecticut (gasp!) that led to declining attendance.

"It wasn't broke, so why try to fix it?" Maria Miller of Coon Rapids remarked while hanging out with friends beside a large inflatable pool at their RV site in the festival's Northwoods Campgrounds.

"We have so many great memories from WE Fest, and we're ready to make more."

History is one of the big things WE Fest still has going for it over other big twang fests that have popped up around the Upper Midwest in recent years.

Formally launched in 1983 with Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette and Alabama — Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and newly announced 2022 headliners Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean all played in more recent years on their way to mega-stardom — the three-day country campout held strong for three decades before its recent decline.

That history no doubt was a big reason Live Nation, the biggest concert company in the world, signed on with local landowner and promoter Matt Mithun to reboot the festival.

Location remains another asset for We Fest. The concert and camping sites are sandwiched between scenic lakes where attendees can soak off the prior night's dirt and damage. The host site, Soo Pass Ranch, has been fine-tuned over the years to offer excellent sightlines, traffic flow and camping setups.

Being far from any sizable city — Fargo is closest at 50 miles away — might actually be an asset, too; especially in the polarized environment of 2021.

"I want to get out of the city, not spend more time in it," said David Kallsen Jr., seated with friends outside an RV under a banner that read, "Born, Raised & Protected by God, Guns, Guts & Glory."

In the campgrounds, it was clear that many attendees weren't just pining for the WE Fests of old. They also seemed to be longing for other things they felt were lost over the past year and a half.

They flew Trump banners and Confederate flags over their campsites. They ignored renewed warnings of masking up in defense of new COVID variants. They repeatedly told this reporter they were blowing off steam at the festival after losing "personal freedom" and "sanity in America."

"It's still legal to have a good time, isn't it?" asked Kyle Baldus of Lino Lakes, donning a red, white and blue cowboy hat.

Having fun actually seemed to be a contractual obligation at WE Fest '21, at least so far as the performers were concerned.

Aside from shout-outs to "hardworking health care workers," singers avoided mentioning the pandemic and politics on stage, much as folks off stage seemed to be avoiding all the hand-sanitizer stations.

"We're in Minnesota, so I know you all drink," Hubbard yelled to the crowd early in Florida Georgia Line's often hokey but unquestionably rousing set. That comment came after they delivered "It's About Time" with opening act Russell Dickerson, who sang the same song (a collaboration with FGL) during his set with a holster of beer cans wrapped around his waist.

That song's lyrics — "It's about time for a drink / It's about time for a cold one" — were echoed with just slightly altered wording innumerable times by other performers.

"Make a quick stop at the Kwik Stop to grab a cold one," Nashville group Lanco sang in its pandering anthem "Wild Again" — one of several from a new record that sounds like U2 channeling bro-country. Its lyrics were about as trite as singer Brandon Lancaster's voice was flat. How about a quick stop to a vocal coach?

Several young acts fared much better, in part by raising the bar beyond songs about going to the bar.

Canadian singer Brad Rempel of the harmonious High Valley, who mentioned being raised Mennonite, eschewed drinking songs altogether and still offered one of the weekend's most fun sets. How fun? His group covered Post Malone's "Circle" in a bluegrass montage, ironically some of the only old-school twang heard all weekend.

After a shout-out to Grand Marais (where her parents have a place), recent best-new-artist Grammy nominee Ingrid Andress playfully played off gender stereotypes in her Pink-flavored anthem "Lady Like."

Lindsay Ell, another Canadian, also brought some much-needed musical variety thanks to her bluesy guitar playing in songs like "The Other Side" and "Good on You," coming off as the musical love child of former beaus Taylor Swift and John Mayer.

Topping things off Friday, Bentley hit a home run by covering all the crowd-pleasing bases in beer- and truck-referencing slacker anthems like his new single "Beers on Me" and his breakout megahit "Drunk on a Plane" — the latter delivered as an encore in a pilot's uniform with a "Dude Air" logo on the video screen.

But Bentley got more serious from time to time, reflecting on the chaos of the past year and a half in songs like "Riser" and "I Hold On," the latter prompting a speech about "getting to live again."

"Nobody in the country is doing more living than those of you at WE Fest tonight," he said.

Moments like that are probably what will help WE Fest live on.

No legacy acts. While festival host Kellie Pickler and FGL's members reminisced about seeing Wynette and Alabama at prior WE Fests — veteran acts that are still touring — the oldest act this year was Saturday's headliner Blake Shelton at 45. Let's hope in future years, Live Nation books artists who predate its dominance in the industry, and not just artists who have exclusive deals with the company.

Seltzers overtook beers. Despite all the songs about beers and sponsorship banners for Miller Lite and Coors, the festival actually had more varieties of hard seltzers and fruity cocktails on its bar menus and doled them out prodigiously. Maybe that's a sign of WE Fest's changing demographics, or just a hint it could offer better beer.

Canadians were M.I.A. The festival typically draws heavily from Alberta and Manitoba, but not this year with the lingering shutdown of the U.S-Canadian border. "They're a big part of our WE Fest experience," said Lakeville's Christy Fiedler, whose group of friends raised the Maple Leaf Flag over their RV to honor their missing friends.

Down on masking up. Yours truly was one of the very few people who donned a face mask in the crowded festival areas, and boy, did I hear about it. "Why'd you even come?" one dude yelled. Another guy accused me of being "a government spy taking COVID notes" as I interviewed his friend. Too bad he couldn't see my broad smile over that one.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658 • @ChrisRstrib