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DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — Attendees and performers alike may notice that WE Fest's facilities have gotten a few upgrades this year when the 2024 festival gets underway on Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Soo Pass Ranch, just south of Detroit Lakes.

"Over the last few years, we have been upgrading and building better infrastructure on the stage and in the backstage area," said WE Fest Marketing Director Sara Collins. "This last off-season, we finalized the permanent dressing rooms; so instead of having artists' trailers backstage, they'll have permanent dressing rooms, which is a great addition."

Collins added that WE Fest's investment in stage and backstage improvements is aimed at attracting top-tier music acts like WE Fest's trio of 2024 headliners, Jelly Roll, Parker McCollum and Eric Church.

"A lot of these artists share management, and word gets out," she said. "We really want WE Fest to be a competitive option when we're making offers."

Artists aren't the only ones who are benefitting from the improvements that are in the process of being completed for this summer, Collins added.

Vicki Gerdes / Detroit Lakes Tribune

"The East Village (located outside the East Gate of the concert bowl) is a big development for us," she said. "We're adding more fun activities to entertain the guests."

While "music will always be the focus" of the festival, Collins said, they wanted to find ways "to make the Soo Pass and WE Fest even more fun for people while they're here."

With that in mind, the East Village will be getting some additional food vendors, a new bar and DJ music, along with "some carnival games" and other familiar favorites "like cornhole and giant Jenga."

Collins said the idea is to create a fun space for concertgoers to hang out between the artists' sets on the main stage.

And that's just the beginning.

"We've added a new off-site box office and will-call," she said. "This is an effort to alleviate some of the congestion at the East Gate entrance ... We've built a box office and will-call site at the corner of Highway 22 and 130th Street, on the way over to Hilltop (campground).

"And just down the road a bit on 130th (Street), we've added a parking and transit hub at Hilltop ... this will be where the daily and three-day parking happens. We got some feedback from folks that they needed some more on-site parking, and it was a high demand."

There will be a free shuttle service traveling back and forth from the East Gate to the Hilltop parking hub, Collins said, to make it more convenient for concertgoers.

The WE Fest Shuttle that the Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce operates between the Becker County Fairgrounds and WE Fest's West Gate will continue as in previous years, she said, adding, "Those buses will be the only ones allowed to come into the West Gate."

Vicki Gerdes / Detroit Lakes Tribune

VIP ticket holders will see several improvements this year, Collins continued.

"We poured asphalt under where the large VIP hospitality tent sits (on the east side of the stage). That was kind of a grassy area," she said.

A VIP Ticket Renewal tent will also be located in the East VIP Hospitality area, and a second VIP bar was also added on the west side of the concert bowl, next to the stage behind the Grandstand.

A VIP Concierge Gazebo was added, behind the Sponsor Tailgate area and VIP Camping, and the Bacardi Country Club, located behind the VIP seating area, has been reoriented so people can see the stage from the Country Club tent.

Some of the campgrounds have also been upgraded, Collins said.

"We did an audit of the campground spaces, and mapped them out," she explained. "We've made some sites larger, to accommodate the larger RVs that come through.

"We've added more electrical sites this year because we always run out," Collins said. "We're slowly adding more of those each year ... that's a large investment, so we take chunks at a time."

Single-day admission tickets for WE Fest went on sale on April 3, though there are still several camping and music packages available. For more information, including the full three-day concert lineup and ticket prices for the different seating and camping options, visit