Category Archives: VBF 2024

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!

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.

Give to the Max Day celebrates 15 years in 2023!

Thursday, November 16 is Give to the Max Day in Minnesota. This one-day giving extravaganza makes it extra easy to give to non-profit organizations efficiently and quickly. The beauty of this platform is that if a donor wants to support more than one organization, it can be done without leaving the site. In addition, it offers donors the opportunity to win Golden Tickets throughout the day which will ultimately provide even more funding for their favorite causes.

There is a $100,000 prize grant pool that has been provided by the Bush Foundation. The grants will be awarded to the winners of the Golden Ticket Drawings which occur every 15 minutes and once an hour throughout the day on November 16. There is one Super-Sized Golden Ticket drawn at the end of the day for $10,000. Golden Ticket winners can give their grant to any one of the organizations that they support. There is no limit to the number of Golden Tickets that any organization can win.

The 15-minute Golden Ticket prizes are $500 and the hourly Golden Ticket prizes are $1,000. In addition, donations that are made during Early Giving (November 1-15) will be eligible for the once-daily Golden Ticket of $500. All donations from November 1-15 are eligible for all Golden Ticket drawings on November 16.

Give to the Max Day was started in 2009 and this year is celebrating 15 years of collective giving in Minnesota. Vintage Band Festival has participated in all 15 Give to the Max Days! We have been fortunate to have won a Golden Ticket as well.

There are many strategies about how and when to submit donations to maximize the chances of winning a Golden Ticket. The one that makes the most sense to us is to decide the amount of your donation and then divide it into smaller amounts so that you can have more than one entry in the Golden Ticket competition. For example, if a person wanted to give $100 total to Vintage Band Festival, making 5 donations of $20 at various times or 10 donations of $10 spread out through the day would generate additional entries for the drawings.

However, don’t overthink it! The important thing is to participate in any way that is right for you. Whatever you choose to do, if you give to Vintage Band Festival, it will be greatly appreciated!

By the way, the next Vintage Band Festival is July 27, 2024. And don’t forget Tuba Christmas in Northfield on Saturday, December 2, 2023.