Bielohs agree to underwrite Walker's CajunFest

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

May 27, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Walker will have its annual CajunFest celebration after all.

Recently, Moondance Jam promoters Bill and Kathy Bieloh agreed to underwrite "CajunFest '99" after Walker's Northern Lights Casino decided not to host the event this summer.

However, the casino and the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce are still sponsors of the event.

For the past eight years, the event was hosted by the casino, but it made the decision to not host CajunFest and two other musical events it has hosted annually -- a polka festival in June and a country music festival in July.

Representatives of the casino's marketing department declined to comment as to why it chose not to host CajunFest.

"The surrounding community just loves the CajunFest," Bill Bieloh said Wednesday. "We figure we had the facility in the Moondance Fairgrounds, and it's good, family entertainment. and we're all about family entertainment."

Walker Mayor Brad Walhof was also pleased the event was saved.

"I'm glad Northern Lights and the Chamber of Commerce and Bieloh got together to keep it in the area," Walhof said. "It's a way for people to find out about the culture of southern Cajun people. It's a treat for people who would ordinarily not get to have that experience. I know a lot of people who go out just to get a taste of alligator."

With the Bielohs now hosting the event, it will be moved to the Moondance Fairgrounds located seven miles east of Walker on Highway 200. The event was formally held at the Northern Lights Casino at the "Y" junction just south of Walker.

It will run Aug. 26-28, and feature Cajun-style music and food, along with other activities.

According to information on Bieloh's Moondance Jam website, the CajunFest has annually drawn "tens of thousands" to the Walker area during the weekend.

"Raucous but charming, this music and food-filled extravaganza of Cajun-Bayou-Louisiana culture and fun features a cast of more than 50 Cajuns direct from the bayou," the site states.