Vintage Band Festival Announces 2024 Festival Schedule

Vintage Band Festival has selected the roster of bands and the complete schedule of VBF 2024 which will take place in Northfield, Minnesota July 26-27, 2024.

VBF 2024 will be a 1+ day affair with music on Friday night and all day Saturday. Friday the music will kick-off at 5:30 pm and Saturday the music will start at 9:00 am and continues non-stop until 10:00 pm.

All performances will be along the banks of the Cannon River in Downtown Northfield.

New to the festival in 2024 are five bands: The Freier Department, Beasley’s Big Band, the Medalist Concert Band, the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band, and K-Libre24. The other bands have performed at VBF before, but for some it’s been more than five years.

Here is the complete schedule for the weekend.

FRIDAY July 26, 2024

5:30 K-Libre 24 *

7:00 Mariachi Mi Tierra

8:30 McNasty Brass Band

SATURDAY July 27, 2024

9:00 New Prague Area Community Band

10:00 Dirty Shorts Brass Band

11:00 Sheldon Theatre Brass Band

12:00 Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band *

1:00 Minnesota State Band

2:00 Freier Department *

3:00 Bavarian Musikmeisters

4:00 Twin Cities Trumpet Ensemble

5:15 Medalist Concert Band *

6:45 Brass Messengers

8:30 Beasley’s Big Band *

*first appearance at Vintage Band Festival

Riverwalk Market Fair will be sharing Bridge Square with Vintage Band Festival on Saturday. There will be more than 30 vendors in the park from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm showcasing fresh produce, baked goods, visual artists, textiles, jewelry, and more.

Visit the Vintage Band Festival website often to get updates and background information about the performing ensembles.

Meet the new VBF Board members

At its February 2024 Board of Directors meeting, the Vintage Band Festival board elected three new members to the group, bringing the total number of directors to fifteen. We’re pleased to introduce Lee Enquist, Vicki Scott and Bonnie Jean Flom.

Lee Engquist

Lee is a recently retired Corporate Tax Director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota where he worked for more than 20 years. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College from Fairmont, Minnesota and sings in the I Cantanti choral ensemble in Northfield. He is a dedicated donor and volunteer for Vintage Band Festival.

Vicki Scott

This winter Vicki opened a new record store in downtown Northfield called Verbena Vinyl. Previously, she was the social media coordinator at Just Food Coop in Northfield from 2016 to 2020. She has also been the marketing manager at the coop in Hastings, Minnesota. She’s written grants for her personal art projects. During the pandemic she worked as a training manager with a health care company. Vicki has an MFA in creative writing and an MA in secondary ed/teaching.

Bonnie Jean Flom

Bonnie is life-long education professional beginning with a teaching position at Longfellow Elementary School in Northfield. She later became the principal for several years at Greenvale Elementary School. After that she held positions in public schools in the Twin Cities. For many years, Bonnie was the lead singer in a popular local ensemble called Bonnie and the Clydes.

Notice of VBF Annual Meeting February 12

In accordance with the Vintage Band Festival bylaws, the 2024 Annual Meeting of Vintage Band Festival will be held on Monday, February 12, 2024 at noon at the conference room of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, 19 Bridge Square, Northfield, Minnesota. A brief recap of 2023 activities will be presented and the 2024 VBF officers will be elected. The meeting is free and open to the public.

The February monthly meeting of the Vintage Band Festival board will take place immediately following the 2024 VBF Annual Meeting.

VBF 2024 will be 2 days!

Historically, Vintage Band Festival has had alternating 1-day and 4-day schedules. In 2024 we’re going to experiment with a 2-night, 1-day schedule. Our plan is to present three ensembles on Friday night, July 26, beginning at 5:00 pm and ending at 10:00 pm. On Saturday, July 27, we’ll program our customary twelve hours of music beginning at 9:00 am.

The VBF board has occasionally discussed this scenario over the years and this year decided to make it happen. Part of the reason for this change is the upcoming 20^th anniversary year of VBF in 2026. Traditionally, 2025 would be a year with a multi-day event. However, since 2026 will be our 20^th anniversary celebration, we decided to move the next 4-day event to 2026 instead. Hence the experiment with a 1+ day event in 2024.

Stay tuned for more information soon on the bands that will be performing in 2024 and the complete schedule of events!

Tuba Christmas 2023 was a success!

Tuba Christmas 2023 in Northfield was a roaring success. An audience of over 600 filled Carleton College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel and listened with rapt attention to nearly 60 tubas and euphoniums playing a variety of Christmas carols. In between numbers, conductor Dr. Paul Niemisto presented information about the evolution of low brass instruments and cultural context for some of the carols.

2023 is the 50th Anniversary of the Tuba Christmas organization and the 24th annual Tuba Christmas in Northfield.

Many thanks to the Carleton’s Conference and Events staff for their assistance in set up and take down and to the college for once again being a supportive co-host for the event.

Vintage Band Festival awarded a 2023 SEMAC Legacy Grant

The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) has awarded Vintage Band Festival a 2023 Legacy Grant for Organizations. The $10,000 grant will be used to partially fund the upcoming Vintage Band Festival 2024 next summer.

One member of the review committee had this to say about our application:

“The people involved in this project are very qualified and have varied skills…great that you are helping to keep Big Band music alive and bringing high quality music to your community….by varying the styles of music it is a educational experience for your audiences and keeps it enjoyable…the location keeps the event very inclusive of all…by mixing amateur and professional bands everyone learns from each other and that makes it a win win for everyone!”

Another reviewer commented:

“A very unique event that evolves and keeps your community involved because of the quality bands and the live music experience….great that you are including Latino bands also…this project seems to have lots of community support from donors to volunteers to attendees… Community involvement is great for this project, and there appears to be planning to improve upon past experiences.”

We’re grateful to our fantastic grant writer, Joy Riggs, for another successful outcome. We’re also grateful to the Minnesota legislature for passing the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment in 2008. That legislation provides the funding for SEMAC and other regional arts councils in Minnesota to administer.

The Vintage Band Festival Fund

As a result of two recent extraordinary donations, the Vintage Band Festival board of directors has launched The Vintage Band Festival Fund. This fund will part of the Northfield Area Fund, a community fund that is under the auspices of a local non-profit organization called Northfield Shares.

Our intent is for the Vintage Band Festival Fund ( VBF Fund) to be a place where donors may wish to give a legacy gift to help insure that Vintage Band Festival will be able to present live brass and wind band music many years into the future. Our organization will continue to fundraise annually to support the next scheduled festival, but we also need to fundraise with a longer timeline in mind.

Legacy gifts can be made using retirement plan assets. They can also be part of a trust or a named beneficiary when planning for one’s estate. They can simply be one-time gifts to honor someone’s memory.

We are humbled and extremely grateful to board member Jan Stevens for her generous gift that has ennabled the VBF Fund to be created. We also wish to acknowledge the Wenger Foundation for their timely gift that has effectively doubled the size of the VBF Fund at its launch.

Donations to the Vintage Band Festival Fund can be made online by clicking on this link:

Our Community Funds

VBF on the radio: Tuba Christmas & the VBF Fund

As a result of two recent extraordinary donations, the Vintage Band Festival board of directors has launched the Vintage Band Festival Fund. This fund will part of the Northfield Area Fund, a community fund that is under the auspices of a local non-profit organization called Northfield Shares.

We are humbled and extremely grateful to board member Jan Stevens for her generous gift of $25,000 that has enabled the VBF Fund to be created. We also wish to acknowledge the Wenger Foundation for their timely gift of $20,000 that will nearly double the size of the VBF Fund. Anyone wishing to donate to the VBF Fund can send a check payable to Northfield Shares (with “Vintage Band Festival Fund” on the memo line) and send it to Northfield Shares, 205 Water Street South, Northfield, MN 55057. There will be an online option soon for anyone wishing to use a credit card.

Jan and two other VBF board members were recently featured on the Art Zany: Radio for the Imagination show on the local station 95.1 The One KYMN Radio talking about the VBF Fund and the upcoming 2023 edition of Tuba Christmas in Northfield on Saturday, December 2. The VBF segment starts at about 35:30:00 in the recording.

ArtZany! Fine Arts Boosters Fundraiser and Vintage Band Festival, 11-17-23

Sheldon Theatre Brass Band Holiday Concert

We’re excited to share the news that the Sheldon Theatre Brass Band will be bringing its annual holiday concert to Northfield this year! This special performance is free and open to the public. It will take place on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 2:00pm, at First UCC (First United Church of Christ, 300 Union St, Northfield, MN). More info below.

The Sheldon Theatre Brass Band has performed at all of the Vintage Band Festival shows in Northfield over the years, so you may be familiar with them. They are a full-size British-style band with 30 players. For the holiday concert, they will play a spirited mix of music to delight all ages. Frosty the Snowman (on tuba), Let It Snow! (with a jazz vocalist), and thrilling full-band compositions are all on the list. Bring yourself, your friends, and family for this free show on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

NOTE: They will also be performing in Red Wing in their home venue, The Sheldon Theatre. That show is on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 3pm. Tickets are required and cost $14 – $25, available for purchase at this website or by contacting the box office at 651-388-8700 or buytickets@SheldonTheatre.

Future Vintage Band Festival dates

In last week’s e-news there was a typo on the date for VBF 2024. The correct day/date is Saturday, July 27, 2024. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

While we have your attention, we thought it might be useful look ahead to 2025 and 2026 as well. Beginning in 2010, we have presented a multi-day festival every three years. That would argue for us to have the next multi-day festival in 2025. However, since 2026 will be the 20^th anniversary of Vintage Band Festival, the board decided earlier this fall to wait until 2026 to stage the next multi-day festival. 2026 is also the United States Semiquincentennial (we had to look that one up!); 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We thought that might make for some extra-special programming.

That means we’ll have three one-day events in a row (2023, 2024 and 2025). As mentioned earlier, the date for 2024 will be July 27. The date for 2025 will be Saturday, August 2. In 2026 Vintage Band Festival will take place July 30 – August 2.