DECC Dir.: Managing Bayfront Again Ensures Non-Competing Events Among All DECC Venues

DULUTH, Minn. – DECC Exec. Dir. Dan Hartman is pleased management at Bayfront Festival Park is coming back under the DECC’s control in a new five-year contract agreement beginning in January 2025.

The council approved the RFP process Monday night lead by city staff who chose the DECC as Bayfront’s next manager.

The contract is worth around $443,000 over five years.

Hartman said the contract funds will mostly pay for a Bayfront employee who will work with promoters to book events and make sure those events aren’t competing with other bookings at nearby public venues like Amsoil Arena, DECC Arena, the Symphony Hall and what will soon be Portside Park behind the DECC.

“Say I have a great 8000-person country show wanting to go to Amsoil, and there might be another one coming into Bayfront, I need to know way in advance. You know what those schedules are looking like for these different bands, so that we don’t have two similar types on the same night, because in a smaller market like Duluth, that could be disastrous for both the promoters who brought those shows into town,” Hartman said. “And once you lose those promoters, they’re gone, you know, and it takes years to bring those guys back. So, for example, it took us two years to get Broadway convinced to come back to Duluth, because the last time they were here 10 years ago, it didn’t go well. And so, you know, you’ve got these limited windows to kind of impress folks, and that’s really important.”

Winterfell Management, which consists of two former managers of DECC entertainment, wanted to extend their one-year contract of Bayfront.  They were chosen by then Mayor-Elect Roger Reinert at the end of 2023 because he said there wasn’t enough time to conduct an RFP process for 2024 management when he took office.