The town of Madawaska is short at least $41,000 required to pay for a controversial music festival it held last month, according to a financial report released by the town’s Select Board Tuesday.
Madawaska brought in less than $38,000 in revenue to cover $90,000 in expenses related to the Northern Maine Summerfest, a single-day festival that brought a handful of relatively unknown artists to perform on the shores of Long Lake in late August.
The town still expects to receive $10,500 from event sponsorships, the select board said. Even with that money, Madawaska will have lost $41,812 to put on the festival, which municipal officials have insisted would require no taxpayer funding.
“The Madawaska Select Board is working diligently to address and resolve the Summerfest 2026 deficit,” the board said in its report.
The board suspended town manager David Daigle earlier this month over his handling of the event’s funding.
Daigle is facing a dueling controversy from allegations that he used his Facebook account to send unwanted sexually explicit messages and video clips to people, though Select Board Chair Renee Deschaine previously said the board’s decision was not related to that.
In a post, Daigle claimed his account had been hacked. His Facebook account appears to have since been deleted. Daigle has not responded to requests for comment and did not answer the door when a Bangor Daily News reporter visited his home Tuesday.
The select board alleged that Daigle showed “blatant disregard” to its instructions not to exceed $75,000 in funding for the event.
Municipal officials had raised questions about money well before the concert began. Just weeks before the festival, the Select Board voted to halve its production budget by $30,000, a change that did not ultimately take effect. Entertainment and audio expenses totaled $64,729, according to today’s report.
The concert sold 805 tickets, accounting for just shy of $21,000. Sponsorships brought in another $15,000 in revenue, and parking, merchandise and other small sources raised a few hundred dollars each.
Tuesday’s report was released in the wake of a BDN Freedom of Access Act Request seeking the festival’s finances.
It’s unclear how the town intends to cover the deficit. The Select Board is expected to address the situation in a regular meeting Tuesday evening.