Vintage Band Festival

Vintage Band Festival 2022 at Bridge Square

Vintage Band Festival News

  • The Lead Benefactors of Vintage Band Festival 2026

    It’s time to announce the most significant gifts in the current fundraising cycle. The Festival Sponsor level is reserved for those gifts that are valued at $5,000 or more. The Minnesota State Arts Board granted us the largest award possible at the level at which we applied. This wonderful opportunity is made possible by the Legacy Amendment from the Minnesota Legislature. We also were awarded two grants from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, an Arts Experiences grant and an Operations grant for the 2026-27 biennium.

    The Northfield Rotary Club has been a Vintage Band Festival donor since the beginning, but the contribution for VBF 2026 dwarfs all of their previous gifts. Thank you Rotarians!

    We received gifts at this level from Carl & Joan Behr, Greg Buck, Paul & Elinor Niemisto and JoAnn Polley & Mark Ulmer. Carl & Joan Behr have been involved with Vintage Band Festival in one capacity or another since 2006. We thank them heartily for the continued generosity which we received from them in 2026. Mark Ulmer and JoAnn Polley were donors at this level and have participated previously at this level. We are honored and humbled by their generosity. Greg Buck is a new friend and new donor who joined us at a level which we still can’t believe. Thank you Greg!

    The Stage Sponsor level of giving begins at $2,000. Board member Vicky langer and her husband, Greg Langer, have been donors for many years and this year they graced us with a gift far beyond what we were expecting. New friend Scott Morgan of the Morgan Planning Group surprised us with his appearance on our radar and we’re delighted. One of the VBF board members was Scott’s middle school choir director!

    Our in-kind donors at the Stage Sponsor level are three business partners that we are integral to the success of our efforts, By All Means Graphics makes our commemorative program a reality every year at no cost to Vintage Band Festival. Festival Production Services provides our stages at reduced rates and Fette Productions does our sound and lighting on a generous pricing reduction. Thanks to all three of these great partners!

    Philanthropy is a noble enterprise. We’re continually amazed at those among us who choose to support the arts. We aat Vintage Band Festival are committed to doing the best that we can to make their investment in us meaningful.

    Vintage Band Festival logo

  • Independent Silver Band

    The Independent Silver Band of Mount Vernon, Illinois brings the music of the 19th century back to life. The original band played from 1884 to 1889, made up of ten local men from the same church and Sunday school. They performed for balls, picnics, skating parties, political rallies — just about every community event that needed music. As family and work demands grew, the band faded, but in 1914 the town gathered one last time for a farewell concert, parade, and reunion.

    Fast forward to 2004. William L. Reynolds, a music educator and longtime circus musician, achieved a lifelong dream by assembling the new Independent Silver Band to enlighten the public to American brass music of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The band also performs as the 48th Illinois Volunteers, modeled after an actual Union Army regiment from Southern Illinois. The Independent Silver Band appeared at Vintage Band Festival in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022. The Independent Silver Band will perform in Bridge Square on Friday, in Central Park on Saturday and during the Battle of the Bands, also on Saturday. On Sunday they will perform during services at Trinity Lutheran Church in Northfield. For the time of these performances and all other concerts and events at VBF 2026, visit vintagebandfestival.org.

    Tom Baker’s Mardi Gras Brass

    Tom Baker’s Mardi Gras Brass is actually a subset of the Independent Silver Band. That allows the members to play a different genre of music for special, more contemporary occasions. Look forward to a classic Dixieland sound from these guys! Tom Baker’s Mardi Gras Brass will be performing at the Eugene Truax Post 4393 VFW Hall in Northfield on Friday night at 7pm.

    Independent Silver Band
    Bill Reynolds, Union officer

  • Where are they now? VBF interviews Ramsey Walker

    We’ve been publishing a series of interviews with our former Vintage Band Festival Student Coordinators. For ten years these students assisted in the planning and execution of each summer event. Following the end of the school year, two students were selected each year to spend two months managing the administrative tasks of producing the festival. Today’s interview is with Ramsey Walker who worked on VBF 2013 following his junior year at St. Olaf College. We interviewed his partner-in-crime, Mitch Evett in a previous post.

    What year did you graduate from St. Olaf, and what was your major?

    2014, Music

    What do you do now for work and for fun?

    I live in Fort Collins, CO, and work for a market research company based in Denver. My wife and I have two kids ages 3 and 5 with another expected this July. Our oldest is starting his music journey on the violin! In my spare time (hah) I enjoy running, cooking/eating, and gardening. Life keeps us busy these days!

    What are your favorite memories from the experience?

    I remember people chucking coins at Mitch (Evett) and I trying to solicit donations with the sousaphones and having too much fun with Drachenfelser. We did so much during those four days, a lot of it is a blur! I remember carting around all kinds of bands up and down the hill. That summer was such a blast covering the whole town with brass music!

    Is there something you learned as a VBF intern that has been useful for later in your life?

    I learned that you don’t always have a clear plan or set of instructions for what to do. Oftentimes people are just relying on you to know the vision and make it happen. I think that lesson served me well throughout my jobs and life.

    Have you been back to a festival since you interned? If so, when?

    I moved out of Minnesota in 2015 and haven’t been back to the festival yet, but I would love to someday.  

    Are you coming back for this year’s 20th anniversary (it’s July 30-Aug. 1)?

    Not this year. We are expecting our baby right before then.

    Any other updates you’d like to share?

    After VBF, I spent about eight years working in Arts Administration, and this internship kicked off my journey in that area. I really enjoyed my experience working directly with artists and problem solving on the fly. Interestingly enough, our research project for the internship was based on an audience survey and now I work with research surveys, so maybe that was a premonition, too. I Ioved my time with VBF and took many life lessons from the festival, and from working with Nemo (editor’s note: Dr. Paul Niemisto). That guy is a pillar of the arts in Northfield!

    Ramsey Walker and family, 2026
    Mitch Evett and Ramsey Walker, 2013

  • WindWorks Woodwind Quintet returns to VBF 2026

    WindWorks Woodwind Quintet is a Northfield and Twin Cities area professional woodwind quintet that was founded in 1993. They celebrated their 25th Anniversary in 2018! The group’s goal is to promote woodwind quintet music, as well as instrumental chamber music of all kinds, by performing recitals throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, greater Minnesota and surrounding states. WindWorks Woodwind Quintet is led by clarinetist, Jo Ann Polley, and has made multiple appearances at Vintage Band Festival.

    WindWorks will present two concerts on Friday, July 31 at the Northfield Public Library, 210 Washington St. in Downtown Northfield. The concerts will begin at 11:00am and 3:00pm. These events are free and open to the public. All are welcome!

    Jo Ann Polley (clarinet), Becky Jyrkas (horn), Kay Sahlin (flute), Cindy Bailey (bassoon) and Dana Maeda (oboe)

  • Northfield Suffragist Chorus

    In 2010, the Northfield and Cannon Falls Area League of Women Voters celebrated Women’s Equality Day. Part of the celebration was a performance by a local group of women singing songs from the years of struggle to achieve the right of women to vote. The movement ended in 1920 with the final ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution, but the songs and the inspiration of their words live on.

    During the Music & Democracy program on Friday, July 31 at VBF 2026, a newly formed group of local women will join us to revive the songs of the suffragists once more. Listen for the following tunes:

    Let Woman Choose her Sphere (Tune: Auld Lang Syne)

    Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?

    The Taxation Tyranny (Tune: Colombia, the Gem of the Ocean)

    The New America (Tune: My Country ‘Tis of Thee)

    The group has been organized by Bonnie Jean Flom, a Vintage Band Festival board member. Accompanying the singers on piano will be Mary Davis.

  • Battle of the Bands 2026 edition

    For soldiers in the American Civil War, music was one of the primary forms of entertainment and regimental esprit.The music was sometimes in song, sometimes instrumental and often both.After sundown in the aftermath of a battle, if opposing forces were camped in close proximity to each other, one band would strike up a tune and when it finished, the band on the other side would answer with a tune of its own.It was a whole more relaxing than shooting at each other! This could go on at length and would only end when one of the bands decided to get some sleep.

    It is a Vintage Band Festival tradition to replicate this communal sharing of tunes beside the Cannon River.In 2026 five bands will participate in the exchange, three on one side of the river and two on the other.Each band will play a tune of its choosing and pass the baton to the next band in a round robin routine.Depending on the length of the tunes, this may result in each band playing three tunes or possibly just two.

    The five bands will be: the Dodworth Saxhorn Band, the Inde­pendent Silver Band, the American Expeditionary Forces Head­quarters Band, Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band, and the 1st Brigade Band.This delightful spectacle will take place Saturday, August 1, at 12 p.m.on the Downtown Riverwalk between the pedestrian bridge and the 2nd St.bridge.Don’t miss it!

  • 3 Nights of Dancing at VBF 2026

    The evenings at VBF 2026 will be jammed with music to get your feet moving. Thursday night features K-Libre 24 and McNasty Brass. Friday we welcome La Clave Orchestra and Brass Messengers and Saturday the bill features Salsa del Soul and the MN Jazz Orchestra. It’s a mix of VBF veterans and first timers. Don’t miss a minute of it!

  • Volunteers are needed!!

    Can you be a Vintage Band Festival volunteer? Folks are need to staff the Information Booths at both Bridge Square and Central Park during the festival weekend, July 30 – August 2. Shifts will be 2-3 hours and task will be giving visitors advice/directions, taking donation, selling merchandise, handing our programs. Follow the link to sign up. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0E48AFA92EA6FF2-vintage2/118012189#/

    For information on all of the musical performances click on VBF 2026.

  • Vintage Base Ball Game at VBF 2026

    Vintage Base Ball Game at VBF 2026

    Come thrill to the crack of the bat and give it some ginger at a vintage base ball game; just leave the foul language at home – and look out for the daisy cutters. Watch the St. Croix Base Ball Club take on the Rochester Roosters in historic costume and with the original 1864 rules, also known as “The New York Game”.

    The original rules demanded, among other things, the highest manners from players and spectators alike. Truly America’s sport, baseball began during the Civil War as young men looked to fill the interminable time between battles, and the game caught on like wildfire when the soldiers brought it home with them after the war. The game was full of colorful jargon: a bat was called “a willow” and the fans were called “cranks”. Pitchers were “hurlers” and batters were “strikers”. The rules challenge the contemporary die-hard: no gloves, no catching equipment, no pitching mound, the hurler throws the ball underhand, batters are out if the ball is caught in the air or after a single hop, and only one ball is used for the entire game.

    Today there are 400 active clubs in the Vintage Base Ball Association. There is an annual two-day festival in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where 24 teams play 48 games on five ball fields. For many years Northfield fielded a team known as The Silver Stars, but time and other diversions have taken their toll on the team.

    The Northfield game will be played on The Bald Spot at Carleton College and the game will begin at 2:00pm on Saturday, August 1, 2026.  The Bald Spot is directly north of Skinner Memorial Chapel, 405 1st St. E. Due to ongoing construction, the best place to enter the campus is at the Winona St. and 1st St. E. intersection.

    Music for the afternoon will be provided by RAVE Brass, a veteran Vintage Band Festival performer.

    Baseball at St Olaf College 2013
    Base ball at Carleton College 1889

  • Music and Democracy: Living History in America

    Friday morning, July 31, Vintage Band Festival will present a multi-media program titled “Music and Democracy: Living History in America” in Northfield’s Central Park.  The United States is 250 years old and the music of the nation has changed often during those years. The program will chronicle highlights of those historical and musical eras. It will include spoken word actors including Theodore Roosevelt, reenactor brass bands in period dress, a Dakota drum group and singers and a folksinging duo. 

    Other concurrent activities during the event include food and drink vendors, non-profit organizations tabling to educate, inform and recruit visitors, a face-painting and make-your-own art booth and an all-ages bicycle parade around the park.

    This is a free and family-friendly event. Children who wish to participate in the bicycle parade are invited to decorate their bikes prior to the event. Decorating supplies will be provided.

    Click on the link for the complete schedule of the Music and Democracy program.