Category Archives: VBF News

Vintage Band Festival: Ten Years of Music and Memories

VBF Presents NiemistoVintage Band Festival will present its latest Enrichment Series installment twice on Monday, May 9, 2016. The program will be given first at the Northfield Retirement Community Chapel (900 Cannon Valley Drive West) beginning at 3:45pm. The Northfield Senior Center (1651 Jefferson Parkway) will host the second presentation at 7pm.

The featured guest will be Dr. Paul Niemisto speaking on the topic “Vintage Band Festival: Ten Years of Music and Memories.” Dr. Niemisto will address such questions as “What is a Vintage Band?” “How do we locate and select the vintage bands that play at the festival?” “What can listeners look forward to at the 2016 Vintage Band Festival?” Niemisto will also perform a demonstration on the helicon, a low brass instrument that is a precursor to the modern-day Sousaphone. He will have three helicons from his personal collection on display at the event.

Vintage Band Festival 2016 will take place in Northfield July 28-31, 2016. 30 bands will play over 100 concerts in Northfield and surrounding communities during the 4-day festival. 2016 is the 10-year anniversary of Vintage Band Festival. Details of the 2016 festival can be found at www.vintagebandfestival.org.

 

 

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the

SoutheasternMinnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and

cultural heritage fund.

Mn Legacy logo

Spaghetti Dinner to Benefit Vintage Band Festival

April 12, 2016

For Immediate Release

Northfield, Minnesota—The Northfield Eagles Club will be hosting a benefit spaghetti dinner 2016 VBF Poster Spaghetti Dinner Spaghetti dinner posteras a fundraiser for Vintage Band Festival 2016. The event will take place, Saturday, April 23, 2016 from 5:30pm – 7:00 pm at the Fraternal Order of the Eagles Club, 304 Water Street South, Northfield. Dinner will consist of spaghetti with marinara sauce and parmesan cheese, salad and sliced bread. Cash bar will be available. Local area scouts will be serving the dinner.

Live music will be presented throughout the evening. There will be three ensembles playing for the dinner guests: student musicians from St. Olaf College at 5:30, Bridge Square Band at 6:00 and an ensemble of student musicians from Northfield High School at 6:30.

Tickets for the Vintage Band Festival spaghetti benefit dinner are available in advance at Coldwell Banker South Metro Office, 419 Division Street South, Northfield. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets may also be purchased at the door the night of the event. All proceeds from the event will benefit Vintage Band Festival.

Vintage Band Festival 2016 will take place in Northfield July 28-31, 2016. 30 bands will play over 100 concerts in Northfield and surrounding communities during the 4-day festival. 2016 is the 10-year anniversary of Vintage Band Festival. Details of the 2016 festival can be found at www.vintagebandfestival.org.

VBF Presents “Fife and Drum Experiences in the Civil War”

March 28, 2016

For Immediate Release

For more information contact Jan Stevens (sstevenshome@yahoo.com ; 507-244-0500).

Northfield, Minnesota—On Saturday, April 9, 2016 at 3:45pm at the Northfield Retirement Center and again at 7:00pm at the Northfield Senior Center, Vintage Band Festival presents “Fife and Drum Experiences in the Civil War.” The public is invited to experience the stirring sounds of traditional fife and drum music as it was played in the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Two 45-year members of the state’s premier Civil War re-enacting unit, the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, will explain and demonstrate the instruments and various calls, signals and martial airs that were an essential part of the daily life of all Minnesota’s volunteer soldiers 150 years ago. The men will be wearing authentic copies of original clothing and accessories.

John Guthmann and Jim Moffet will recount how they found an annotated original music book in the collection of the Anoka County Historical Society that has proven to be instrumental in the ongoing musicology of this segment of American folk music. The book was written by George Bruce and Dan Emmett and is titled “Drummers’ and Fifers’ Guide”.

“Fife and Drum Experiences in the Civil War” is presented by Vintage Band Festival, a 10-year old organization dedicated to showcasing vintage brass and wind music in Northfield and other southern Minnesota communities. The next Vintage Band Festival will be held July 28-31, 2016 in Northfield.

Vintage Band Festival 2016 Band Roster

March 14, 2016

For immediate release

Artistic Director: Paul Niemisto, vintagebandfestival@gmail.com; 612-308-6857

Media Contact: Dan Bergeson, bergeson@northfieldwifi.com; 507-581-0553

Northfield, Minnesota—The Board of Directors of Vintage Band Festival has announced the roster for Vintage Band Festival 2016 scheduled to take place in Northfield July 28-31, 2016. 2016 marks the tenth anniversary for the Vintage Band Festival organization which has staged five previous events. Festivals in 2006, 2010 and 2013 were four-day affairs and those in 2014 and 2015 were each one-day “Mini-Fests.”

There will be both international and domestic bands at this year’s festival. The international bands are traveling to Minnesota from Belgium, Germany and Sweden. The domestic bands represent seven states: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota bands comprise the largest contingent with 18 bands on the list. The complete roster can be found here.

Vintage Band Festival 2016 will showcase seven bands making their first appearance at the festival. Four of the first-timers are Civil War re-enactor bands, one is a brass quartet, one is a clarinet sextet and one is a Hispanic “Banda”, Banda la Verdadera, from Minneapolis, MN. Two of the Civil War bands are from Iowa, one is from Illinois and one is from Indiana.

Bridge Square Main Stage headliners at the Vintage Band Festival 2016 will be Copper Street Brass, Jack Brass Band, Banda la Verdadera and Brass Messengers.

Vintage Band Festival 2016 is a four-day brass and wind extravaganza taking place in multiple locations throughout Northfield and surrounding southern Minnesota communities. 30 bands will present over 100 concerts during the festival in parks, churches, retirement communities, veterans clubs, bars and pubs. The festival is free and open to the public. Complete information can be found at www.vintagebandfestival.org.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Fall 2015 Report to Friends of VBF

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

 One Day Festival August 1, 2015

Our second one-day event on August 1 was a tremendous success. 12 bands played on the Bridge Square stage during the 12-hour festival and donations from the audience reached $8,000. Thanks to Riverwalk Market Fair for another fruitful collaboration!

Financial Update

On August 3, 2015 Vintage Band Festival was able to meet all of its past obligations, pay for the expenses of the 2015 one-day festival and continue into the fall with a positive cash balance. Since that time, additional donations and grant awards have resulted in a cash balance of $20,000. Since the projected budget of the 2016 festival is approximately $100,000, $80,000 remains to be raised. We plan to accomplish this with a combination of grants, business sponsorships and appeals to VBF friends like you!

Homecoming at Fort Snelling

VBF sponsored the music for the reenactment of the 150th anniversary of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry’s homecoming at historic Fort Snelling on August 15.  Thanks to The Manitou Regimental Band for a fabulous job!

Vintage Band Festival Presents

VBF hosted three amazing educational programs during the fall. On September 28 Paul Maybery gave a presentation on the history of brass bands in the United States. William Crowder, “Bugler Bill”, was in period dress on October 26 and demonstrated dozens of bugle calls in a “day in the life” of the United States Army infantry. On November 23, Joy Riggs read from her forthcoming biography of her great grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, a real-life music man. Thanks to our friends at the Northfield Retirement Center and the Northfield Senior Center for being great partners in this effort.

 News from the Board of Directors

Jesse Streitz joined the Board at the November meeting. Jesse is a recently retired local business owner and a fine clarinetist. Welcome Jesse! Jim Haas, VBF Treasurer, announced his plans to resign from the Board at the end of 2015. Thanks to Jim for his outstanding work during the past two years!

VBF Secures SEMAC Grant

Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council awarded Vintage Band Festival a $10,000 Arts and Culture Heritage Grant in November. The money will be used to support the participation of a number of Midwest bands in the 2016 festival. Thanks to Board Secretary Joy Riggs for her successful grant application.

2016 Festival

The next multi-day Vintage Band Festival is scheduled for July 28-31, 2016. The band roster is nearing completion and promises to be an outstanding array of variety and talent. 2016 will be the 10-year anniversary of Vintage Band Festival and next year’s festival will be the sixth staging of this unique blend of brass and wind music,

You Can Help!

Please consider a year-end tax-deductible donation to Vintage Band Festival. You can make a secure donation on our website, vintagebandfestival.org, or send a check to Vintage Band Festival, 204 W. 7th St.., Box130, Northfield, MN 55057.

Vintage Band Festival Educational Series

Monday September 28, 2015: 3:15pm at the Northfield Retirement Center Chapel and 7:00 PM at the Northfield Senior Center Performance Room. Paul Mayberry of Savage, MN, music historian, arranger and conductor (as well as a tuba player} is our inaugural  speaker.  He is well known for finding  brass band music from the 19th century and arranging it for bands to perform today.  He arranged the music for Ken Burns’ television series on the Civil War and on baseball.  Paul will bring rare 19th century brass band instruments, photographs and recordings to present a program on the Story of Brass Bands in America.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Bugler bill stillMonday October 26, 2015: 3:15pm at the Northfield Retirement Center Chapel and 7:00 PM at the Northfield Senior Center Performance Room. Bugler Bill, a Civil War Re-enactor and bugle historian from the Twin Cities will present a lively program on Civil War  Bugler history and do all the calls “in character.”    He is a popular presenter at Civil War Round Tables and in schools. He will bring several bugles  to show and to play. There’s a well-done Youtube video here that previews Bugler Bill’s presentation.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
my musical family posterMonday November 23, 2015: 3:15pm at the Northfield Retirement Center Chapel and 7:00 PM at the Northfield Senior Center Performance Room. Northfield’s own Joy Riggs will give us the highlights of a book she is writing about her own Great Grandfather G. Oliver Riggs, a 19th and early 20th Century Midwestern Band Director, a real live Music Man.  He toured with a band in the early 20th Century that visited Civil War Battle Fields to dedicate monuments to Soldiers from the upper Midwest.  Joy comes from generations of music educators and is a dedicated volunteer for many music groups in Northfield,  serving on the Board of Directors for the Northfield Youth Choirs and for the Vintage Band Festival.  She is an award winning magazine columnist, writer and a blogger at My Musical Family.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

VBF 2015 General News Release

T0:                                         Southern Minnesota Media Outlets

WHAT:                                  Vintage Band Festival Mini-Fest

WHEN:                                  August 1, 2015

WHERE:                                Bridge Square, Northfield, MN

CONTACT INFO :                Rachel Gaul (gaul@stolaf.edu)

 

Northfield, Minnesota—July 13, 2015

Vintage Band Festival will present a one-day mini-festival on August 1, 2015 in downtown Northfield, Minnesota. There will be 12 different brass and wind bands playing throughout the day from 9am-9pm. Each band will have the stage for 45 minutes and the musical formats will range from Civil War to Old-Time to Jazz to Ethnic. There will be a German band, several community bands, a Mariachi Band and the “Red Bull Band” from the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard. Perennial favorites include the Sheldon Theatre Brass Band and the Copper Street Brass Quintet.

From 9am-1pm, Vintage Band Festival will be sharing Bridge Square with Riverwalk Market Fair, a street fair with a collection of local art vendors showcasing photography, painting, pottery, jewelry as well as local farmers and food artisans.

Listeners should bring a lawn chair or a blanket and may stay for a couple hours or the whole day. Food will be available onsite from Maria’s Taco Hut, Cannon Valley Lion’s Club, Johnny Pops and the Moravian Church or attendees can visit any of Northfield’s fine restaurants many of which are within several blocks of the festival site. For the complete schedule and any possible schedule updates, visit the Vintage Band Festival website.

Paul Niemisto, Artistic Director of Vintage Band Festival is available for interviews by phone or in person. Please contact Rachel Gaul (gaul@stolaf.edu) for more information and an appointment.

Vintage Band Festival 2013 Report to Donors

November 22, 2013

2013 was the best Vintage Band Festival yet.  Bands from Sweden, Germany, Austria, Texas, Chicago, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota converged on Northfield Minnesota for 5 days of intense brass wind music.   Artistic director Paul Niemisto designed the festival to showcase vintage brass music, and to highlight the best of contemporary brass music from New Orleans jazz to Chicago shout bands to professional European brass ensembles.  Bringing all these together in one place makes the Vintage Band Festival unique in North America.

VBF 2013 was exponentially larger than either of the previous festivals. 35 bands provided a combined total of 134 unique musical experiences. In 2010, concerts were staged in seven communities beyond Northfield.  For 2013 we added six more towns to make a total of 13: Faribault, New Ulm, Cannon Falls, Red Wing, Chatfield, New Prague, Minneapolis, Scandia, St. Peter, Owatonna, Nerstrand, Montgomery and Kasota.

Staffing for VBF 2013 followed a similar format to the previous two festivals, though more people were required due to the increase in the number of band, communities and events.  A platoon of volunteers run the festival, ably coordinated this year by our omni-competent St. Olaf College interns Mitch Evett and Ramsey Walker.  The VBF website was completely redesigned to give concert-goers far more information. The online event schedule was transformed into an interactive experience complete with a biography of each band, a photo of the band and a Google map showing directions to the concert location. An additional Google map displayed all of the concert locations and directions to each one. Free audio samplers of most of the bands were made available using the SoundCloud service.

FESTIVAL GROWTH         2006-2013

Budget                 Bands                    Events                  Attendance        Communities

2006         $38,000               20                           36                           9,000                    2

2010       $100,000              25                           91                           12,000                   8

2013       $170,000              35                           134                         15,000                   14

What’s Next for the Vintage Band Festival

Artistic growth has exceeded our administrative infrastructure and fundraising ability, which needs to grow to match our artistic reach.  We need to recruit board members with specific skills, add to our administrative structure, and pay off about $50,000 in accumulated debt from the three Vintage Band Festivals.  We feel we are at a not-unexpected place for a young festival. We believe we are at a not-unexpected place in our organizational life.  We have established a successful festival unique in North America, and now need to build additional organizational infrastructure to support it.  We believe the $170,000 we spent this year is a reasonable budget to put on a festival of this caliber, and we also believe we can raise that level of support for each festival going forward, given the dedicated audience we have built.

From now through 2014 we expect to

  • Recruit additional board members with specific skills in finance, administration, and fundraising.
  • Improve our communication with and outreach to friends and donors.
  • Establish an annual giving club – our very own “Band-aid” to support VBF in planning as well as in festival years.
  • Extinguish the approximately $50,000 in debt we have accumulated.

By 2015 and 2016 we expect to

  • Hire our first part time administrator to manage preparations for the festival.
  • Program and present the 4th, and best yet, Vintage Band Festival 2016.

What the Vintage Band Festival Needs from Our Friends

  1. Board members with specific skills in finance, administration, and fundraising.  If you would like to nominate someone or volunteer, please let us know.
  2. Friends who will consider holding part of our accumulated deficit as no-interest loans for a period of two years while we negotiate payments and increase our fundraising capacity.
  3. Dedicated supporters who will pledge an annual gift to the Vintage Band Festival so we have adequate planning funds in the off years.  We especially appreciate annual gifts of $100, $500, or even $1,000 which can help us build a reliable income.
  4. Gifts of any amount now so we can build up an advance reserve fund for the 2016 Vintage Band Festival.

Thank you for your past support of the Vintage Band Festival.  You, our friends and audience, are a vital part of the Vintage Band Festival experience.

Paul Niemisto, Artistic Director

Jan Stevens, President of the Board of Directors

“Old-time bands bring the brass for Northfield festivals” via the Star Tribune

Read a recent article about the Vintage Band Festival in the Star Tribune here. (Written by Liz Rolfsmeier.)