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.
The exhibitors that will tabling during the program are: Music Mart, Northfield Youth Choirs, Northfield Arts Guild, Northfield Rotary Club, Northfield/Cannon Falls League of Women Voters, Northfield Fine Arts Boosters, Northfield Pride, Theodore Roosevelt, Friends of Downtown Northfield, Northfield History Center and Boho Peacock & Friends.
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.
Music and Democracy Schedule
9:45 Greetings and excerpts from the Declaration of Independence
10:00 Imnizaska Drum Group: intertribal Mni Sota Makoce collective
10:30 Gettysburg address and Emancipation proclamation
10:45 Dodworth Band Saxhorn Band: Civil War/Post Civil War music
11:15 Theodore Roosevelt and the progressive era
11:30 Northfield Suffragist Singers: Women’s Right to Vote Movement
11:45 The Doughboy Foundation’s American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters Band: World War I
12:15 Helen Forsythe and Cliff Martin: Dustbowl years, labor and civil rights struggles
12:45 Reflection on the state of the nation in 2026
1:00 America’s 250 All-Ages Bike Parade
2 laps around central park following Grand Marshal Linda Wasner leading the pack on her Vintage Velocipede!
COME EARLY TO DECORATE YOUR BIKE
We encourage parents with children and other bike riders to arrive early to decorate their wheels with crepe paper, glitter and balloons.
There will be an area on the east side of the park with supplies and helpful assistants to make your bike look spectacular.
1:30 Brass Solidarity: music as movement in 21st century America
2:00 Music & Democracy closes