Vintage Band Festival

Vintage Band Festival 2022 at Bridge Square

Vintage Band Festival News

  • Vintage Band Festival and COVID-19

    This the first multi-day Vintage Band Festival since 2019 and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While the transmission level in Northfield (Rice County) is rated low by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the COVID-19 Omicron variants are highly transmissible and it’s still wise to be aware of one’s surroundings and use mitigation measures as needed.

    The current CDC COVID-19 guidelines are the following:

    Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Get tested if you have symptoms. Wear a mask if you have symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19. Wear a mask on public transportation. You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others.

    Vintage Band Festival encourages musicians and audience members to wear N95 or KN95 masks in indoor settings where maintaining physical distance from others isn’t possible. Please stay home if you have symptoms. We also encourage everyone to get the full vaccination regimen for the vaccines (varies by vaccine manufacturer, either 3 or 4 doses).

  • VBF music in neighboring communities

    VBF music in neighboring communities

    In 2022, the Vintage Band Festival music won’t be heard only in Northfield. We’ll have our bands playing in four different counties! We think of these events as musical evangelism. If you love the concert tonight, come to Northfield tomorrow for three more days of this premier brass band sound.

    On Thursday, July 28, four veteran VBF ensembles will give concerts in Montgomery (Le Sueur County), Nerstrand (Rice County), Cannon Falls (Goodhue County) and Farmington (Dakota County).

    Independent Silver Band from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, will play at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Park in Montgomery in the city’s “Concert in the Park” summertime series.

    Dodworth Saxhorn Band

    Dodworth Saxhorn Band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, will play at 7:30 p.m. at the City Park in Nerstrand.

    Also at 7:30, Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band will perform at St.Ansgar’s Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls. Finally, Kentucky Baroque Trumpets will play at Farmington Lutheran Church in Farmington. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

    Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band

    If you are in these areas or your schedule won’t allow you to be in Northfield on the festival weekend, visit one of these locations for a rewarding Vintage Band Festival experience.

  • It’s time to thank the 2022 Sponsors of the Day

    We have a new giving category for Vintage Band Festival 2022: Sponsor of the Day. In 2019 we suggested that the giving level of $250-$499 be dedicated to honoring a music teacher that was a significant mentor for our donors.

    This year, we’ve designated that giving level for special recognition during each of the four days of Vintage Band Festival. Thanks to all of our Vintage Band Festival 2022 Day Sponsors!

     

    Thursday July 28 Sponsors of the Day

    Premier Bank, David McKee and Lynn Naeckel, Kathleen Vang, David Hoiness, David Otterness

     

    Friday July 29 Sponsors of the Day

    Allina Health Northfield, Paul and Maribeth Beck, Norman Grier, Gerry and Carol Gengenbach, College City Beverage

     

    Saturday July 30 Sponsors of the Day

    Sarah and Ross Currier, Steve Lawler and Joy Riggs, Hogan Brothers, Arnold and Celena Witt, Rod and Deb Christensen

     

    Sunday July 31 Sponsors of the Day

    Dennis and Janet Hahn,, Judy and Paul Tarabek, Judy Broske, Peter Webb and Karen Saxe, Diane Boyum, Stan Mork

  • Stage Sponsors for VBF 2022 are the best!

    The number of Stage Sponsors ($1,000+) for Vintage Band Festival 2022 is record-setting. We’ve never had such a fantastic response to our action call! We need to thank the following from the bottom of our hearts:

    Carl and Joan Behr

    By All Means Graphics (in-kind)

    Capital Construction

    Carleton College

    City of Montgomery MN

    City of Northfield (in-kind)

    Northfield Rotary Club

    Mary Rosenberg

    Nan and Dave Shumway

    Jan Stevens

    Lois and Noel Stratmoen

    Three LInks Care Center

  • Looking for Vintage Band Festival 2022 Volunteers

    St. Olaf student Sarah Stevens staffing the VBF 2014 Info Tent

     

    There are many ways to volunteer for Vintage Band Festival 2022. We need folks to help with setup in Bridge Square on July 27 and 28. We also need folks to help with take down on July 31 and August 1.

    From Thursday, July 28 to Sunday, July 31 we need folks to staff the VBF Information Tent to take donations, sell merchandise and tell visitors about the festival. We also need people to manage chairs, music stands, and percussion equipment on the stages at Bridge Square and Central Park.

    If you have a couple hours or a couple days, please visit our SignUp Genius website and choose your shifts. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e48afa92ea6ff2-vintage2

    THANK YOU!

  • Musical History on Display at VBF 2022

    Since the beginning of Vintage Band Festival in 2006, the core of the multi-day event has been the appearance of historic reenactor bands from around the country. Vintage Band Festival 2022 will be no different.

    Dodworth Saxhorn Band

    Today’s Dodworth Saxhorn Band is modeled after the Dodworth Band of New York City, which was the premier brass band in the United States from the 1840s to the 1880s. The original Dodworth Band was directed by brothers Allen and Harvey Dodworth who were among the most highly respected musicians and bandmasters of the 19th Century. In 1985 musical instrument collector Alexander Pollock created the modern DSB as a living history project. The band performs 19th century music including compositions and arrangements from the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, private collections and university libraries as well as a few new arrangements by musicologists who are experts in 19th Century brass band style and instrumentation.

    The DSB is led by Music Director Mark Felder and Artistic Director Lori Gould. Dodworth Saxhorn Band is returning to Vintage Band Festival after a nine year absence!

    Independent Silver Band

    In 1884 to 1889 the prosperous and energetic Illinois community of Mt.Vernon enjoyed the music of its own Independent Silver Band. In July, 2004, the music of the Independent Silver Band came to life once more. It is composed of 10 local men, all of whom attended the same church and Sunday school. By bringing together interested brass players and percussionists from Mt.Vernon and surrounding cities and towns in southern Illinois, the Independent Silver Band is composed of the proper team of dedicated persons, all of whom shared the vision to give audiences the chance to hear the music of a bygone time.  The band leader of Independent Silver Band is William Reynolds.

     

     

    Kentucky Baroque Trumpets

    Don Johnson was inspired to play the baroque trumpet, also known as the natural trumpet, in 2004 after attending the Historic Brass Society Festival. He introduced his friends to the instrument, and they formed a group dedicated to re-creating its sounds and styles, including signal calls, cavalry music, dance music, duets, solo music and trumpet with voice, which requires playing in different styles and tone colors. The band members also play modern instruments, and they dedicate part of their performance to educating the audience about the difference between the two types. The band’s Civil War band incarnation, President Lincoln’s Own, performed live in Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln and was selected to be in the National Geographic movie Killing Lincoln. This is the band’s third appearance at Vintage Band Festival.The band is currently led by Don Johnson Jr.

     

    Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band

    The musicians of Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band are dedicated professional and semi-professional brass, reed, and percussion players whose performance is as close to that of a late 19th-century professional touring band as is possible today. Like bands from that era, the group ranges from six players to a full ensemble of 30. It usually tours with 17 reed, brass and percussion players. The band plays only music that would have been heard between the end of the Civil War and the advent of the Sousa Band in 1892, primarily dance music. Concerts feature the most popular examples of polkas, waltzes, quicksteps, schottisches and mazurkas, as well as the march. The band is conducted by Elisa Koehler and managed by Michael O’Connor and is making its sixth appearance at Vintage Band Festival.

    1st Brigade Band

    The 1st Brigade Band of  Watertown, Wisconsin performs period brass band music from the 1860s on antique instruments, dressed in period clothing. They first began in 1864 when the Brodhead Brass Band enlisted in the Union Army as the band of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps. Upon leaving Wisconsin, they participated in William T.Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea” to Georgia and the Carolinas. In 2009, the 1st Brigade Band was awarded the Rueben Gold Thwaites Trophy for Local History for collecting and preserving history and sharing it with the public. The band leader is Doug Condon. The 1st Brigade Band is making its fifth Vintage Band Festival appearance.

    For the complete schedule of Vintage Band Festival 2022, please visit the VBF website.

  • Evening entertainment for VBF 2022

    Vintage Band Festival 2022 will boast three successive evenings of high-energy entertainment this coming summer.

    On Thursday, July 28, the festival kicks off with the return of Brass Lassie, a Twin Cities Celtic fusion band with traditional flutes and pipes backed by a fine group of horns. At 8:30 Selby Avenue Brass Band takes the stage featuring Thomasina Petrus. Expect a wonderful melding of New Orleans Jazz with the blues. Thomasina Petrus is a veteran stage performer and recently starred in a production of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” about the life and legacy of Billie Holiday.

    Banda La Verdadera

     

    Friday evening begins with Banda La Verdadera at 5:00 followed by Mariachi Mi Tierra at 6:30. Both bands have become crowd pleasers at past Vintage Band Festivals. The final ensemble of the evening is Malamanya at 8:00. Malamanya plays traditional rhythms and melodies from the Caribbean and Latin America. They are legendary in the metro Twin Cities for those who love to salsa and samba. Malamanya is making it Vintage Band Festival debut.

    Malamanya
    Jack Brass Band

    Saturday the music in Bridge Square starts at 9:00 AM, but things really start jumping at 6:00 when Jack Brass Band takes the stage. They play New Orleans jazz with a happy up-tempo style. They call it “feel good music.” Perennial favorites Copper Street Brass are up next at 7:15 and the evening closes with the return of Buddy Koopmans Orchestra. Big band sound with swinging rhythms and great vocals will fill the air.

    Buddy Koopmans Orchestra

  • Three Links Care Center returns as a Vintage Band Festival Stage Sponsor in 2022

     

    Sponsorships are vitally important to the success of Vintage Band Festival 2022. We want to welcome back Three Links Care Center as a Stage Sponsor for VBF 2022 and Hogan Brothers as a Day Sponsor. Pam Tidona, Marketing Manager at Three Links and Greg Heymans, Proprietor of Hogan Bros., are both enthusiastic supporters of Vintage Band Festival. Greg has told us that Vintage Band Festival weekend is typically his best weekend of the year!

    Sponsorship benefits accrue at various levels, including frequent publicity on VBF social media, prominent recognition on banners and signs at the performance venues and in the official Vintage Band Festival program and an invitation to an exclusive donor reception just prior to the festival weekend in July.

    Sponsorships are open to both businesses, non-profits and individuals. Stage Sponsorships are achieved with a $1,000 donation, Band Sponsorships occur at the $500 level, and Day Sponsors are named with a $250 donation. Donations of $3,000 or more are designated as Festival Sponsors. Festival Sponsors for VBF 2022 are the Wenger Foundation, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and JoAnn Polley and Mark Ulmer.

    If you would like to learn more about becoming a Vintage Band Festival Sponsor, please contact Jan Stevens, Fundraising Committee Chair, for more information. Jan can be reached at507-244-0500 or janofdundas@gmail.com.

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  • Northfield Shares recognizes Vintage Band Festival volunteers

    April was National Volunteer Month. Throughout the month the Northfield News and Northfield Shares, an advocate of volunteer activism, highlighted several local organizations and individuals in a series of social media posts and newspaper stories. One of the organizations they chose to feature was Vintage Band Festival. During the 16 years that VBF has been in operation, all of the work done to present live band music in dozens of Northfield locations has been performed by volunteers. From the 12-member working Board of Directors to the homestay host families to the majority of the musicians, the volunteer ethic is alive and well. Thanks to all of our volunteers! Read about all of the volunteers honored on the Northfield Shares website.

    If you’d like to volunteer to help with VBF 2022, check the VBF website later this month to learn what tasks need doing and when.

    Dan Bergeson, Randy Ferguson, Jan Stevens at a recent VBF Board meeting

  • VBF 2022 Spring Fund Drive is underway!

    Hello  Vintage Band Festival friends! It’s been some weeks since we’ve made the time to update you on our status. Planning is going well for another summer musical blowout July 28-31, 2022. Vintage Band Festival 2022 promises to be a spectacular celebration of brass band music, historical band music, multi-cultural band music and band music to dance to. Please make plans today to join us for one morning, one afternoon, one day or all four days. You won’t be disappointed!

    We are in the midst of our annual spring fund drive. This campaign is critical to our 2022 plans for a robust summer festival. We need to raise $10,000  by June 1 in order to stay on the budget track that we put into place last fall. The good news is that we are halfway to that goal. By the end of the day on April 22, we had tallied $5,475 for the spring drive. This puts us at $15,475 toward our overall goal of $35,000 by the time the last note of the festival sounds on July 31, 2022.

    Recently, we sent a mailing to some of our past donors. To those who have given so generously since our 2021 festival we offer our warmest thanks. If you haven’t made a contribution to Vintage Band Festival recently or have always meant to make your first donation, now would be an excellent time to do so! You may send your check to Vintage Band Festival, 204 W. 7th St. #130, Northfield, MN 55057. If you prefer to make your contribution with a credit card, go to www.vintagebandfestival.org , scroll down and click on the green “Donate” button when it comes into view. Follow the prompts to make a safe and secure donation. A donation in any amount is welcome, but gifts of $100 or more would be especially helpful at this time.

    The festival schedule is close to complete and we will begin to share details in the coming weeks. Check our website, www.vintagebandfestival.org regularly for updates and follow Vintage Band Festival on Facebook.

    Thanks for your support!