Tag Archives: VBF 2021

Roseville Big Band comes to Vintage Band Festival

ROSEVILLE BIG BAND

The Roseville Big Band is a 19-piece swing band in the Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey style, with the Rosetones vocal quartet recreating the tight harmonies that made the Modernaires and Pied Pipers popular adjuncts to the Miller and Dorsey bands. 2021 Vintage Band Festival audiences will enjoy our Gershwin tribute and other timeless music from the Big Band Era of the 20th century.

In a typical year, they give 12 to 15 performances, including the Carleton College Mid-Winter Ball, the Minnesota Commemorative Air Force’s USO-style hangar dances, and concerts in parks and senior residences. Dr. Glen Newton has led the Roseville Big Band since 1989. He formed the Rosetones vocal quartet in 1996 to complement the band’s instrumentals and vocal solos and duets.

Roseville Big Band is sponsored by Merchants Bank  and Dennis and Janet Hahn. Roseville Big Band plays at 8:15 pm on July 31.

Roseville Big Band

Vintage Band Festival is Back!

Have you heard the news??

Vintage Band Festival 2021 will take place July 31, 2021. Exactly 425 days will have elapsed since VBF’s last public event: the Swing into Leap Year Dance on February 29, 2020. It’s been a long time coming. With the lifting of restrictions by the Governor’s office a couple of weeks ago, it looks like our outdoor event in Bridge Square can be held safely.

We’re going to have a great lineup for 12 hours of brass band enjoyment. The evening schedule is set. At 5:30 on the Wenger Showmobile Stage we’ll have Southside Aces, a fantastic Twin Cities jazz ensemble led by Tony Baluff on clarinet. Copper Street Brass will take the stage at 6:45 and the evening will finish with the sounds of the Roseville Big Band. Copper Street Brass has appeared at every Vintage Band Festival since 2006, but the Roseville Big Band will be making its debut with us. Bring your dancing shoes!

We’ll announce the rest of the lineup just as soon as we get confirmations from everyone. Check back often at the VBF website for  the rest of the day’s schedule and other festival details.

Riverwalk Market Fair, an open-air bazaar featuring fresh produce vendors and artisans of all sorts, will again be sharing Bridge Square with Vintage Band Festival. This collaboration has been taking place for a number of years now and we love the synergy that results from the co-mingling of our audiences!

Thanks to our spring donors who stepped up during Spring Forward MN in May. We have a goal to raise $5,000 before the July festival and we’re 30% there following the May fund drive. If you can help us with a gift in any amount, please visit www.vintagebandfestival.org and click on the green “Donate” button.

This past year has been difficult for everyone and we’re looking forward to seeing all of you again in person. If you haven’t gotten a COVID-19 vaccination yet, please do so at your earliest opportunity. The best way to reduce the risk of virus transmission for everyone is for people to be fully vaccinated.

Spring Forward for Vintage Band Festival May 1-11

May 1-11 has been designated “Spring Forward MN” by the online fundraising organization GiveMN.org. GiveMN offers a platform with which donors can give gifts to multiple Minnesota non-profits simultaneously. The website is available for year-round donations, but has an annual event called “Give to the Max Day” in November.

Last year GiveMN saw that non-profit organizations were unable to do traditional in-person fundraising due to the COVID-19 pandemic so it added a spring event to assist them. It was so successful that the decision was made to repeat the event in 2021.

Vintage Band Festival has participated in every Give to the Max Day since the event began and uses the GiveMN platform throughout the year as well. Earlier this month the VBF Board of Directors elected to also participate in “Spring Forward MN 2021.”

Besides the convenience that GiveMN.org offers donors, there are other benefits during Spring Forward MN. $50,000 will be awarded in increments of $250 and $1,000 for donors to make an extra contribution to an organization of their choose. These Bonus Grants will be determined with hourly and daily drawings during the May1-11 donation period. Vintage Band Festival has been the recipient of one of these surprise grants in the past and hopes to be a lucky winner again.

At Vintage Band Festival we are planning to return to live programming in 2021, although at this time we’re still not sure whether that will be in-person or virtual performances due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps it will be a combination of the two formats! In any case, we will have production expenses in order to put on a show. This is where you can help us. We have established a goal of $5,000 to be raised before May 31, 2021.

Please join us during Spring Forward MN in the drive toward our goal of raising $5,000. Donate online with whatever amount is right for you at GiveMN.org anytime between May 1-11. Just search for “Vintage Band Music Festival” on the givemn.org home page and click the big green DONATE button. Maybe your donation will be the one that secures another Bonus Grant for Vintage Band Festival!

COVID-19 update from Vintage Band Festival

The last event that Vintage Band Festival produced took place on February 29, 2020. We had a great turnout at the Northfield Ballroom for our “Leap Year Swing Dance” with music provided by Bend in the River Big Band. Two weeks later, all live entertainment in the entire country was silenced by COVID-19. Vintage Band Festival went on hiatus for the rest of 2020.

Now that vaccines are being distributed, the medical community and governmental agencies are considering what that means for resuming activities that 12 months ago were thought of as “normal” or “routine.” We are following those discussions and announcements with great interest and trying to chart a course for Vintage Band Festival in 2021.

It’s too early for us to know whether we’ll be able to provide music this year in our usual format: outdoors in a public park. Because of that uncertainty, we are exploring options for streaming music in a virtual format. This could be live or recorded music or a combination of the two. Stay tuned for developments on this front!

In the meantime, we continue to raise funds for the future needs of Vintage Band Festival. We have recently added PayPal as an additional option for online donations at www.vintgagebandfestival.org. We also are beginning to see donors considering legacy gifts to our organization. These are larger gifts using donor-advised funds from investment portfolios. Please consult with your financial advisor if this is something you may be interested in doing. Some folks have even told us that they’re setting aside some of their stimulus money for Vintage Band Festival!

We hope this message finds you in good health and good spirits. One last thought: if you haven’t received your COVID-19 vaccination yet, please do so as soon as circumstances allow. The more people that get vaccinated, the sooner we can gather in a group setting to listen to brass bands together!

Sheldon Theatre Brass Band-VBF 2018