A few days ago, early-bird ticket buyers to the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival next summer started receiving some very special snail mail. “To show our appreciation for your support at the start,” writes Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon, who curated the festival along with the National’s Aaron Dessner and signed the letter with festival trailer narrator Michael Perry, “here’s a sneak peek at just one of the many artists from the lineup we’re assembling.”
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Names keep coming via Twitter submissions from letter recipients, but the full list of artists performing at the festival, which takes place in Eau Claire, Wis., on July 17 and 18, has officially been revealed. Bon Iver will headline Eaux Claires alongside Spoon, the National, Boys Noize, Sufjan Stevens, Sylvan Esso, the Tallest Man on Earth and the Indigo Girls, among many others (listed alphabetically below).
“We got 95 percent of the people we dreamed of getting,” Vernon tells Billboard. “I’ve had a list in my head for years. Aaron was there to help me fill in the gaps, and everyone at Crash Line [Productions, producers of Eaux Claires and Boston Calling]. They were like, ‘Every one of these people are your friends, come on man, let’s make sure we sell some tickets here.'”
Inspired by Aaron and his twin Bryce’s curation of Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival, Vernon wanted to create an environment that gave artists the chance to be creative outside of the neverending album-tour-rinse-repeat cycle. Though he’s hesitant to reveal some of the visual and performance elements, Wisconsin-based up-and-comers PHOX will precede their performance with a documentary they made about trying to make it as an indie band, without sacrificing their integrity, in the music industry.
“There’s going to be a lot of alternate performances in different kinds of performance spaces, to give you an idea of the regular relationship between the stage and the audience, and really trying to alter that,” Vernon says. “We’re trying to be unique at a global scale, colliding art forms and music and collaborations between artists of all kinds together.”
Ever the humble Midwesterner, Justin Vernon declines being “self-centered” twice during his conversation with Billboard. “I’ve always wanted to throw a big party with everything I would want at a place, and assumed other people want the same people there,” he says of the festival. “It’s self-centered, but at the same time we got the opportunity to do it, so here we are.”
And of Bon Iver, which he maintains never broke up, he says, “It’s my project, and I’m not selfish or self-centered, but it’s my baby. I take care of it and I’m the curator of that band, project, whatever you want to call it.” Though he doesn’t know what’s in store for Bon Iver, Vernon admits that the idea of the band reuniting for a hometown show has gotten him thinking about it again.
Eau Claire is Vernon’s hometown and not far from his famed April Base studio, where the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has cut tracks with James Blake, the National, North Carolina folkies Megafaun and collaborators S. Carey and Volcano Choir. When Vernon hasn’t been holed up there with Eaux Claires creative director Michael Brown (who’s also designed sets for Grizzly Bear, the National, Bon Iver and Wilco) — “he’s my age, we’re both 33, just living in this weird art house where we’re working on fun, creative stuff” — he’s been learning new techniques, checking out new gear, and, you know, cutting tracks with Kanye West.
Still, working with Yeezy can’t compare to Vernon’s “wildest dream” of hosting a festival in his hometown. “It feels kind of unreal that it’s going to happen here,” he says.
Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival Lineup:
Aero Flynn
Allan Kingdom
Blind Boys of Alabama
Bon Iver
Boys Noize
Charles Bradley
Colin Stetson
Doomtree
Elliot Moss
Field Report
Francis and the Lights
Givers
Grandma Sparrow
Haley Bonar
Hiss Golden Messenger
Indigo Girls performing Swamp Ophelia
Liturgy
Lizzo
Low
Marijuana Deathsquads
Melt-Banana
No BS! Brass Band
Phil Cook
PHOX
Poliça
Retribution Gospel Choir
S. Carey
Sam Amidon
Spooky Black
Spoon
Sturgill Simpson
Sufjan Stevens
Sylvan Esso
The Lone Bellow
The National
The Staves
The Tallest Man On Earth
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