Lumberjack Promoter Pleads Guilty

A concert promoter in Stillwater, Minn., convicted last year of writing bad checks pleaded guilty to three felony tax violations from his time with the now-defunct Lumberjack Days.

David Eckberg faced multiple felony counts for failing to pay sales, alcohol and entertainment taxes over the last few years of the fest’s existence. He recently entered a plea agreement that includes payment of restitution to the state, five years probation and signing the rights of the festival over to the city of Stillwater, according to court documents obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Eckberg reportedly owes more than $100,000 in back taxes. “How he ran Lumberjack Days in these last couple years did a disservice to the name of the event,” prosecutor Rick Hodsdon of the Washington County attorney’s office told the paper. “We’re giving it back to the community, I suppose, [as] some measure of – in a nonlegal sense – restitution.”

Hodsdon added that he plans to ask a judge during an upcoming sentencing hearing to forbid Eckberg from operating any future community events.