Bon Iver frontman’s Eaux Claires music festival canceled for 2019
Fifth edition planned for 2020 at new Pablo Center; cancellation follows 2018’s changes, mixed reviews
Eaux Claires — the beloved boutique music festival co-founded by Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon — is taking a break.
Organizers for the Eau Claire-based event announced on the Eaux Claires’ website the fifth annual installment will not take place in 2019. The festival will return in 2020, organizers said in a statement, at a new location in Eau Claire.
“While it will be hard for us to break the chain of momentum and the positive impact the festival has had on our community, we have fresh, clear ideas of how to make it even better,” read the statement. “But we aren’t just changing locations, we’re bolstering our philosophies. We want to celebrate even more about this real town we call home by extolling and imagining things we haven’t seen or experienced to date.”
Organizers didn’t offer specifics, but vowed the next installment “will be more focused, fun, and internal,” and that they would host events at the newly opened Pablo Center at the Confluence in the coming months that “will incorporate performance and dialogue about the direction we plan on taking the festival throughout the coming decade.”
The news wasn’t surprising. In recent years, festival dates were announced the previous fall, and on Friday, Summerfest announced that Bon Iver would be headlining the American Family Insurance Amphitheater June 29, billing it as the band’s only Wisconsin appearance of the summer.
Music industry experts also suggest the festival marketplace has reached a saturation point. In Wisconsin, Country on the River in Prairie du Chien and Summer Set in Somerset canceled plans for festivals this past summer, and Country USA in Oshkosh will scale back from five days to three beginning next year.
Eaux Claires also received mixed reviews last summer, and reportedly saw a drop in attendance. The festival went directly against Summerfest — which hosted hip acts like Janelle Monae and Arcade Fire during Eaux Claires’ weekend — and opted for a controversial secret lineup.
The artists weren’t announced until the morning of the first day, and the roster included many past performers like the National and Francis and the Lights, and eschewed the kind of big gets that had played other years, such as Chance the Rapper, Paul Simon, Wilco and Erykah Badu.
Yet Eaux Claires — co-founded by Vernon and the National’s Aaron Dessner — was immediately and widely celebrated as a one-of-a-kind festival upon its first installment in 2015.
The festival took pride in its distinct lineup — where guest collaborations were the norm not the exception — and creative art installations and performances, like literary readings in mobile hotel rooms.
It frequently hosted special sets that could only be seen there, including Bon Iver’s premiere performance of 2016 album “22, A Million” front to back; John Prine and Grateful Dead tributes featuring multiple guest performers; and a one-time-only concert pairing Simon with chamber string group yMusic.
Approximately 25,000 people attended each of the first three Eaux Claires events from 2015 to 2017, with 85 percent of attendees coming from farther than 60 miles away, according to Visit Eau Claire. Fest-goers came from 49 states and seven countries and annually spent $6.8 million in the community during the festival.
Tickets for Bon Iver’s Summerfest show will be available beginning at 11 a.m. Friday, at the box office (200 N. Harbor Drive), by calling (800) 7453000 or visiting ticketmaster.com. Folk acts Lord Huron and Julien Baker — the latter an Eaux Claires alum — will open.
More on music
Piet Levy talks about concerts, local music and more on “TAP’d In” with Jordan Lee, 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9). Follow him on Twitter @pietlevy and on Facebook at facebook.com /PietLevyMJS.
CLARIFICATION
Kroger is buying a portion of Green Bay-based Shopko’s pharmacy files. A story in the Tuesday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel business section indicated that Kroger was buying all of Shopko’s pharmacy files.