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Flight cancellation causes impromptu road trip, $35K bill for DL students

Members of the Detroit Lakes High School Band and Choir take in the sights of Orlando, Florida, following their competition performances on March 13, 2026.
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Lakers Music Boosters
Members of the Detroit Lakes High School Band and Choir take in the sights of Orlando, Florida, following their competition performances on March 13, 2026.

Several Detroit Lakes High School band and choir members are currently on a northbound bus, and Music Director Tim Siewert said the travel fiasco will add $35,000 in unexpected costs.

DETROIT LAKES — A mess of flight cancellations at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport this weekend, March 14-15, due to a winter storm has one group of Detroit Lakes High School musicians heading back north on an unexpected road trip.

Members of the Detroit Lakes High School band and choir were competing in the Orlando, Florida, area during last week’s spring break.

From a bus on Monday, March 16, Music Director Tim Siewert reported the groups represented their school and community well in their performance competitions, but the travel snafu is adding an estimated $35,000 in unexpected costs.

“Half of our group actually did make it home, but the other half did not and got stranded in Florida for an extra day,” Siewert said. “Our next flight was not going to be until Thursday, so we ended up getting some buses to drive us home.”

To assist getting the band back together, Siewert says donations can be made to the Detroit Lakes music boosters program.

The group is expected to arrive in Detroit Lakes late on Tuesday.

Larissa Donovan has been in the Bemidji area's local news scene since 2016, joining the KAXE newsroom in 2023 after several years as the News Director for the stations of Paul Bunyan Broadcasting.
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