The day the music (almost) died

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The Festival at Sandpoint recently released an economic impact study reflecting how many dollars are brought into our community from the annual summer concert series. The results show that while the Festival at Sandpoint is a cultural phenomenon enjoyed by thousands throughout the region, it’s also an asset for our community that needs to be protected at all costs – including against those who have attempted to bring the Festival down in years past.

Conducted by the University of Idaho in 2022, the economic impact study assessed the financial contributions of the 2021-2022 Festival at Sandpoint fiscal year and its impact on Bonner County. 

Despite costly improvements to War Memorial Field, bigger concerts and a pandemic which disrupted public concert attendances worldwide, the study showed that the Festival’s impact had grown by 58% in regional sales, 61% in gross regional product, 57% in total compensation, 47% in jobs created and 96% in tax contribution.

The study examined both direct economic impact (including job creation, payroll, gross regional product and sales resulting from the Festival) as well as indirect economic impact (which takes into account impacts on other regional businesses that provide goods or services to the Festival and the effect of employee and consumer spending on the economy).

Estimating conservatively, the Festival at Sandpoint’s direct economic impact is $3.8 million in Bonner County, generating over $223,000 in Sandpoint, Bonner County and state of Idaho taxes while also creating 37 full-time equivalent jobs throughout Sandpoint. 

Of the 29,278 Festival tickets sold in 2022, approximately 15% were sold to Bonner County residents (mostly from Sandpoint), while 58% travel from other parts of Idaho, 26% come from out-of-state and 1% travel internationally. In other words, 85% of Festival patrons do not reside in Bonner County. Every dollar they spend while visiting our community is a dollar we wouldn’t have had if the Festival at Sandpoint didn’t exist.

Festival visitors also bought over $2.1 million in food and drinks, retail purchases and housing accommodations in the time of the study.

Also benefiting the region is the fact that the Festival has five full-time employees, 22 part-time employees and independent contractors and approximately 600 volunteers whose combined volunteer time is equivalent to $669,600 in community value each year.

Why is it important to know these numbers? Because we live in Idaho, where identity politics has grown out of control to the point where it is beginning to affect daily life in negative ways across the state. We’re starting to see the results of these choices, such as our beloved Bonner General Health recently announcing they would stop delivering new babies because vague and extreme abortion laws have created a drought of health professionals — many of whom choose to work elsewhere to avoid possible prosecution for providing health care to their patients. 

Over the course of several years, the Reader exhaustively covered dual attempts by gun rights activists suing the Festival at Sandpoint because of their no-weapons policy while leasing the venue from the city of Sandpoint. Current Bonner County Commissioner Steve Bradshaw and former Commissioners Dan McDonald and Jeff Connolly brought the first legal challenge, which Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler also joined in as a plaintiff. However, the suit was doomed from the start because of lack of standing. 

A second lawsuit was brought by then-abortion abolitionist Scott Herndon, who now represents District 1 as state senator. Herndon, along with area resident Jeff Avery, Boise-based gun rights lobby firm Idaho Second Amendment Alliance and Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation ultimately lost their suit, but have appealed the decision to the Idaho Supreme Court. 

“From the beginning this has been a test case,” city of Sandpoint attorney Katharine Brerton argued in court, “And, as appellants have continuously demonstrated, one without a reasonable basis in fact or law.”

This just shows the lengths that ideologues like Herndon will travel — and the economic harm they are willing to inflict on their own communities — just to pass laws that support their own narrow, extremist beliefs.

Why are we electing people who are making it their goals to harm or eliminate major economic drivers to our region? If either of the lawsuits were successful, the Festival would have either had to change venues or cease operations entirely, as most of the bands booked to play have stipulations in their contracts that they will not play venues which allow weapons inside during concerts. That would mean millions of dollars no longer funneling into our region, dozens of jobs lost and, last but not least, the loss of a beloved local music festival many look forward to all year.

It’s important to remember studies like this when it comes to electing our next lawmakers. The Festival is a foundational piece to our local economy and those who attempt to pull that piece from under us are not acting in our best interests.