Features
Iowa Festival Up A Creek
Creek Fest, a country music festival near Cherokee, Iowa, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection after being sued by a firm that provided security for the event in late July.
The fest, which has no connection to the Cherokee Creek Music Festival in Texas, owes more than $1.5 million to creditors and has less than $50,000 in assets, according to court documents quoted by KCAU-TV.
Jamin R Enterprises, the company that owns the festival, reportedly owed On Point Security Group more than $115,000 for the fest headlined by Kid Rock and featuring Chase Rice, Chris Janson, Elle King, Joe Diffie and others.
A falling out between Kurt and Joyce Rasmus, the fest’s founders, and financial backer VT Industries contributed to Creek Fest’s woes. The couple reportedly plans to find a new financial partner, dissolve Jamin R Enterprises and start fresh with another festival in 2017.
“We are still hopeful that we can have a great show,” Joyce Rasmus told the local Pilot-Tribune. “We have every intention of it. We won’t let this go away completely. We’re still pushing as hard as we can.”
The paper estimates the July 29-30 festival hosted some 10,000-12,000 fans and 1,300 campsites. Security was reportedly beefed up this year because of crowd concerns in 2015, but even that didn’t prevent a robbery and assault at the festival for which three people have been arrested.