Music Events

Eaux Claires 2018 Dates! (And also – check out our Troix look back video)

Eric Christenson, photos by Lee Butterworth |

Eaux Claires 2017
Eaux Claires 2017 | Image: Lee Butterworth

After three years of eclectic performances in almost every imaginable sphere of art, the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival is cracking the ice around year four to reveal the dates for 2018’s fest – July 6 and 7 right here in Eau Claire. The festival – known for its cryptic nature – teased some inner workings with audio of a few phone calls between co-creators Justin Vernon and Michael Perry about jumper cables (the long ones). Then later, they teased some more action by soliciting audio clips of fans and past attendees to talk about their experiences.

Now with today's announcement, the festival has released a half-hour long audio mashup of fan's comments mixed around eclectic songs of all kinds (perhaps from some artists on the 2018 lineup? We'll let you speculate!), beats, trippy pitch-bending effects, and other auditory nuggets. You can listen to that and cop early bird tickets right now at eauxclaires.com.

In announcing the dates, the fest pasted up posters along the outside of the Fire House bar in downtown Eau Claire. The posters display a link to the aforementioned audio file. Check it out ...

And now that we have the dates ...

You can mark those calendars and start yearning for the forthcoming humidity and artistic thrills of summer 2018. And what better way to remind yourself of that magic than to relive Eaux Claires Troix with our recap video (below). Our intrepid videographers caught every nook and cranny of last summer’s festival – from the booming musical moments on stage to quiet rainy solitude of the wooded art installations – and condensed it all into a three-minute gem of the best of the best moments year three had to offer.

Filmed and edited for V1 by Anthony Casanova. Additional camerawork by Jon Hamblin and Joel Pearish.