The recent flooding of the St. Croix River has meant a stressful few weeks for the organizers of Lumberjack Days, which will be held Friday through Sunday in downtown Stillwater. High water means that the popular annual summer music festival will move to South Lowell Park, south of the Stillwater Lift Bridge.
When flooding isn’t an issue, the festival is held north of the bridge. “Everything north of the park is still under water, and the stuff that isn’t under water is just really muddy, so we’re not able to use all of that area,” said Brian Asmus, an Afton resident who is leading a new group of festival organizers called LJD Events. “We had to change our layout a lot to accommodate for a much smaller land space.
” The high water also forced the cancellation of the 2024 Minnesota Wakesurf Championship — where riders surf a boat’s wake, rather than being pulled — which was set to be held for the first time in Stillwater. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the cancellation of the on-water wakesurf competition for this season,” organizer Jeremy Wahlberg wrote in a post on the Minnesota Wakesurf Championship’s Facebook page. “Unprecedented flooding this late in the season in Minnesota has created a situation that, unfortunately, will not be resolved in time to hold a world-class competition.
” Among the issues: the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol unit couldn’t issue a permit until the river level was below the no-wake thresh.