Photo by Laurie Fanelli
The Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival will officially return in 2018. The dates for the fourth annual rendition have just been confirmed for July 6-7 of next year. That said, tickets are now on sale.
Though the lineup for Eaux Claires IV has not yet been announced, organizers recently released a letter to fans, breaking down the intention of the forthcoming incarnation of the fest. Included with the note is a 29-minute audio clip featuring select sound bites and track snippets from artists like Pussy Riot, Serpentwithfeet, Kevin Morby and Jlin, among others.
Hints of the 2018 lineup? Maybe. But don’t get too excited as nothing has officially been confirmed. See the complete letter below and listen to the audio clip here.
“Hello.
IV.
We’ve been talking about it. You’ve been talking about it.
IV is the sum of the I, II, and III. Although sum implies bigger. Or predictable. Or expressible [producible] [reproducible] by formula. Whereas in fact mathematics is an abstract science.
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.
This is not the comfortable way of doing things. This is not an algorithm leading to a rocket ride. These are roots reaching for who knows quite what. But we’re gonna reach.
We also know we have to drape the experience on a structure. Pay the bills. Hit certain marks. Without a skeleton, we collapse. So of course there are tickets. A few of them right here, right now. More will be available in time. And more details, as well. But the most important detail you already know. The most important detail is you. You: willing to walk into a mix of art and sound and big and small and through the abstract science of the benevolent crowd, turn it into Eaux Claires.
Turn it into IV.”
Eaux Claires is the brainchild of Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner. The two-day event began in 2015 and has since featured performances by Bon Iver, The National, Spoon, Jenny Lewis, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, The Tallest Man On Earth, Mavis Staples, Beach House, Chance The Rapper, Francis and the Lights, Wilco, Sylvan Esso, Vince Staples, James Blake, Bruce Hornsby and Paul Simon with Ymusic, to name a few.
For more information and to pick up tickets, visit the official Eaux Claires Festival website.
