By Jeremy Gragert, for the Chippewa Valley Post
Although the two-day Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival will start on Friday (July 6) there is still no official word from organizers about the line-up of performers.
This is year four of the festival, and organizer and Eau Claire native Justin Vernon of the band Bon Iver has been in the habit of making it a different experience each time. This year, part of the experience is the mystery of who the musicians and artists will be, and how many people will buy tickets or fly across the country to solve such a mystery.
The hardcore detective or “super fan” may be able to piece together a line-up for this weekend, as Vernon has stated to the press that he’s given plenty of clues.
I will be reporting from the festival grounds for the Chippewa Valley Post for the third year in a row, garnering reactions from attendees about the fact that the line-up was under wraps until the festival, and what that meant for them before and during the festival. Last year I wrote (http://cvpost.org/eaux-claires-ever-tried-something-new/) about the fact that folks show up in part to see new artists anyway, so those who show up this year under more adventurous circumstances will likely share the prevailing attitude of an open mind.
The Eaux Claires website (http://eauxclaires.com/) states:
“Eaux Claires was never meant to be fully understood or easily delineated. We know it has a spirit; we know it has a feel. We know we can light up the marquee with certain names and that will precipitate solid mathematics. We’re excited about the names. But we’re gonna drib and drab it out, let it flow like smoke, because we want this festival to fly or fall on feel. It’s not about the bands, it’s about the collection of art and artists reacting with the collection of you. We’re less interested in telling you what it is than you making it what it becomes.”
Perhaps a full-page ad for Eaux Claires in Volume One (see home page photo) sums up the situation. It reads “DO YOU LIKE HAPPY ACCIDENTS?”
Watch the CVPost home page next week for Jeremy Gragert’s coverage of the 2018 Eaux Claires festival.