Vintage Band Festival is looking for folks to help with various tasks during our upcoming event on July 26-27, 2024. The times that help is needed are 1:00 – 11:00 pm on July 26 and 7:00 am – 11:00 pm on July 27. Please let us know of your interest and availability by sending an message to bergesod@gmail.com.
Category Archives: VBF 2024
McNasty Brass Band to headline Friday eve, July 26
McNasty Brass Band is a collection of Minneapolis/St.Paul-based horn players and percussionists that fuse the Minnesota metropolitan sound with the spirit of New Orleans. The outcome of this fusion is hard-hitting dance music and high-energy live shows.
Each player works tirelessly outside McNasty Brass Band as a side man, some with national and international touring acts. That’s what makes McNasty special – these youthful but experienced side men come together and showcase their compositions, solos, group vocals and stage presence as front men. “McNasty Brass Band is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t make fun of the kid who is super into trumpet in 5th grade” (twincitiesmedia.net). Their recordings King Size Life and MNBB, encapsulate their live energy with exciting compositions, rowdy gang vocals and rip-roaring solos. The only thing missing is their dance moves!
McNasty Brass Band will play at 8:30 pm on Friday, July 26, 2024.
Jan Stevens and Lois Stratmoen, VBF volunteers extraordinaire
The next two profiles showcase two of the longest-serving Vintage Band Festival board members, Jan Stevens, our Fundraising Committee chair and Lois Stratmoen, our donor Correspondent.
Jan Stevens
VBF board member and chief fundraiser, Jan Stevens, is a person of action who leads by example. Since 1994 Jan has been involved with the Northfield Rotary Club, and specifically with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Jan has been a champion advocate for Northfield and after retiring from the real estate world this is what she had to say about living here:
“Northfield has everything, 45 minutes to an international airport, 5 times a day bus
service to the metro area, one hour to the Mayo Clinic Hospitals, two outstanding
colleges that bookend the north side of Northfield, culture diverse activities that rival
anywhere, recreational activities for all ages, and church and bar music that rivals much
larger communities.”
That civic pride and keen sense of the arts brings us to her involvement with VBF. It was Jan’s generous gift that enabled the Vintage Band Festival Fund to be created in 2023. The fund is part of Northfield Shares and was established to allow the Vintage Band Festival to develop a more sustainable financial strategy. Jan’s passion for our community is contagious!
Lois Stratmoen
When was the last time you received a hand-written note in the mail? VBF board member and Donor Correspondent, Lois Stratmoen, is known for handwriting notes, not only to patrons of the Vintage Band Festival, but also to Northfield area youth who are featured in the Northfield News.
Lois and her husband Noel have been citizens of Northfield for more than 50 years. Her list of civic leadership roles is impressive to say the least. Here are a few: former chair of the Northfield Hospital Board, former church council president of Bethel Lutheran Church, Board of Directors/Northfield United Way, Northfield Arts Guild member and cast member in many Guild musical productions, and co-recipient of the 2003 Northfield Sertoma Service to Mankind Award. We are honored to have the wisdom and personal touch of Lois Stratmoen serving VBF!
Meet VBF members Joy Riggs and Dan Bergeson
Joy Riggs
The Vintage Band Festival Board is fortunate to have Northfield journalist and author, Joy Riggs, as our secretary and Grants Coordinator. Joy has been integral in securing many rounds of grant funding over the years and that has been a major reason for the longevity of the organization.
Joy is the author of “Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters” (the story of a Minnesota Music Man). The non-fiction book is the story of Joy’s great-grandfather and his life passion of developing community bands in several Minnesota towns. His commitment to civic pride, community participation and belief in the power of music to transform lives, continues through Joy’s volunteerism and the mission of the Vintage Band Festival. Great-Grandpa would be proud. Thank-you Joy!
Dan Bergeson
Mr. Bergeson is a doer. The Vintage Band Festival and Board members are indebted to Dan for his stellar leadership as President of the Festival since 2017, but his connection to the organization goes back to the beginning of the festival in 2006. He retired in 2018 from a 30-year career at Carleton College as Director of Auxiliary Services. You can hear Dan play his trumpet in several local brass ensembles and he recently took up the violin and the accordion. If there was a local percussion ensemble, I believe Dan would be the first gung-ho new percussionist!
Beasley’s Big Band with Courtney Burton
Beasley’s Big Band with Courtney Burton is a group of musicians dedicated to playing great big band jazz and having fun at the same time. They are dedicated to preserving a “classic” big band style and especially strive to honor the legacy of the Count Basie Orchestra.
Founded in 1991, Beasley’s Big Band has played many different venues for a variety of audiences, ranging from corporate parties and ballroom dances to intimate club dates and charity functions. The name of the band comes from Chuck Beasley, the band’s founder, lead alto sax player, and chief musical arranger. Chuck passed in 2021, but the band and his legacy lives on. The band’s classic big band sound can be attributed to Chuck, who arranged the majority of the songs the band plays.
Jazz vocalist Courtney Burton was born to sing and she has been with Beasley’s Big Band for 18 years. With the band or her own combo—Court’s In Session—or a solo piano, she brings style, warmth, and a contemporary spirit to the music of the American Songbook and the swing era.
Beasley’s Big Band with Courtney Burton will perform at 8:30 pm on Saturday, July 27 in Downtown Northfield MN.
Brass Messengers return to Vintage Band Festival
The Brass Messengers are a Minneapolis street band playing mostly original music inspired by global sources. The BMs formed from the annual rubble of of the Heart of the Beast Mayday Parade and Ceremony in Minneapolis. The musical origins were found in the music of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Balkans, but now the BMs play whatever works, throwing in a country song to the crying drinkers, a high speed polka or two for the midwest dancers, running in circles with the little ones, activating gatherings of our activist kin or a bit of Black Sabbath for the metal crowd. But mostly, it is an original music that rises from the heart of the band that can only be described as a homegrown Minneapolis street music sound.
The Messengers play stages large and small, events from parties to bars, large theaters to street parades and funerals. The Mess have been a part of the HONK community for nine years running, attending more than ten HONK festivals in Sommerville, Seattle and Austin, TX.
Brass Messengers will be on the VBF 2024 stage beginning at 6:45 pm on Saturday, July 27, 2024.
The Medalist Concert Band
The Medalist Concert Band, a volunteer group composed of 70 Twin Cities–area musicians, was founded in the fall of 1968. The primary purposes for the band are (1) to provide adult musicians with an opportunity to perform; (2) to provide Bloomington and the surrounding area with outstanding musical concerts; and (3) to provide young musicians with a model of music as a lifelong hobby.
Since its founding, the Medalist Concert Band has given more than 1,000 performances, many of them with high school and college bands, at summer concerts-in-the-park, and in church-sponsored programs. In addition, the band has distinguished itself through invitational appearances at such prestigious events as the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Music Educators National Conference, and the Minnesota Music Educators Association Conference.
The Medalist Concert Band is proud to have earned a reputation as “one of foremost community bands in the nation,” as described by the National Band Association. The band was the 1996 recipient of the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Silver Scroll Award, which is given annually to the top two community bands in the United States.
The Medalist Concert Band will perform in Bridge Square on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 5:15 pm. This is the band’s first appearance at Vintage Band Festival.
VBF 2024 welcomes returning friends
New Prague Area Community Band
The New Prague Area Community Band is a dynamic, non-profit organization of volunteer musicians who share a love for playing music that entertains diverse audiences. Their members range from high school students to grandparents, united in their passion for making music that’s enjoyable for all. This New Prague, Minnesota ensemble has been the opening act at Vintage Band Festival for many years and we’re delighted to welcome them back in 2024.
The New Prague Area Community Band will kick off the Saturday VBF 2024 schedule when they take the stage at 9:00 am on July 27.
The Alphorns
On a typical beautiful evening during spring, summer or fall, Ralph and Mary Brindle can be found playing alphorns somewhere…at home, at local parks, in the BWCA, in the mountains, even out in the snow while snowshoeing! Mary and Ralph play for outdoor weddings, Swiss Independence celebrations, and special occasions upon request. Active musicians with a variety of musical groups in the Twin Cities, Ralph and Mary began playing alphorns in 2004 and are excited to bring some alphorn serendipity to the Vintage Band Festival!
The Alphorns aren’t on a schedule when they perform at Vintage Band Festival. They wander up and down Division Street at their own pace, stopping to perform 10-minute pop-up concerts on street corners and in front of shops. Go find them, they aren’t going to come to you!
The performers at VBF 2024 continue: Dirty Shorts Brass Band and Bavarian Musikmeisters
Bavarian Musikmeisters
The Bavarian Musikmeisters are a 35-member wind instrument band from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota that have been sharing the beauty, enjoyment, and history of traditional Germanic band music and culture with people of all ages at festivals, park concerts, senior residences and private parties since 1985.
The Musikmeisters are modeled after the traditional village bands found in the German-speaking areas of Europe. Their attire, instrumentation, and musical arrangements of marches, polkas, waltzes, folk dances, and ballads are all authentic.
The Bavarian Musikmeisters will perform at 3:00 pm on Saturday, July 27 in Bridge Square in Downtown Northfield, MN.
Dirty Shorts Brass Band
The Dirty Shorts Brass Band is local (Twin Cities) New Orleans-style jazz band with ten musicians that have played together in this and other many other bands for many years…as far back as the late 1960s, in some cases. New Orleans-style jazz is a blend of jazz, blues and Dixie, with a strong beat and a street corner feel.
The band has been together since 2010, for the pure joy of performing in front of live audiences everywhere. Venues over the years have included numerous city parks, county fairs, the Minnesota State Fair (several times on the International Bazaar stage), the St. Paul Winter Carnival, churches, fundraisers, weddings, funerals, and private events.
Dirty Shorts Brass Band will play at 10:00 am on Saturday, July 27 in Bridge Square in Downtown Northfield MN.
For the complete schedule of Vintage Band Festival 2024 visit www.vintagebandfestival.org or the Vintage Band Festival page on Facebook.
VBF 2024: Mariachi Mi Tierra on Friday evening; Minnesota State Band on Saturday afternoon
Mariachi Mi Tierra
Mariachi Mi Tierra is the oldest Mariachi ensemble in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. Rosalio Castro (trumpet),who formed the group in 2003, has been playing various Mexican styles of music since he was in his teens. Eduardo Castro is the group’s director.
Mariachi Mi Tierra produces the full sound of authentic mariachi. The mariachi ensemble is the only ensemble that requires the vihuela and the bass (guitarrón mexicano). These two instruments are the rhythm section. There’s no other ensemble in the world that uses them, except mariachi.
The members of Mariachi Mi Tierra have brought a great number of regional and current favorites into the group’s repertoire. In addition to events in the local Mexican community, Mariachi Mi Tierra also plays at schools, colleges, businesses, casinos, and festivals. In 2020, the ensemble enjoyed a residency with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.
Mariachi Mi Tierra will perform at VBF 2024 in Downtown Northfield MN on Friday evening, July 26 at 7:00 pm.
Minnesota State Band
The Minnesota State Band is the Official Band of the State of Minnesota and has been in existence for over 125 years (since 1898). The band is the only remaining State Band in the United States. While at one time the band received funding from the State of Minnesota, the band is now operated as a non-profit organization with an all-volunteer membership. The band has represented the State of Minnesota on six International Goodwill Tours since 1986 visiting Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands (Holland), Poland, Spain and Switzerland. The band has extensive relations with the Musikverein Ellzee in Germany and with other bands from the countries it has visited.
While international travel is important, the band sees its primary mission as providing high quality music to the residents of Minnesota.
The Minnesota State Band will play in Bridge Square on Saturday, July 27 at 1:00 pm.