Evelyn Nelson, McKenna Scherer, photos by Andrea Paulseth, Luong Huynh |
After the joyful chaos of day one, Eaux Claires' revival year had largely shattered any pre-festival grumblings around its tighter lineup and smaller venue (plus, the surprise solo Justin Vernon set didn't hurt).
Roughly 7,500 attendees sprawled across the grounds on Friday, July 24, with reportedly thousands more joining the fray for Saturday, July 25. Day two's musical bill included Eau Claire's gash and a number of Minneapolis-based projects like Gully Boys, Known Mpls, Revelation and Samia; plus Larry Goldings Trio, Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas.
But as we'll chat about later on, the festival's sleeper hit status belongs to the Writers In Residence. Nestled under the tree canopy of the Chippewa Valley Museum's grounds, just beyond the music and entertainment stages – and joined by two artist installations from Ben Holmen and Hannah Phelps – soothing reprieve and artistic exploration was offered.
On our side of the equation, day two also allowed us to indulge in the food vendors (day one food lines were too long for us, but the Dogwood Coffee was great) – shoutout to Eau Claire's Egg Roll Plus for slinging 10,000+ rolls and Pete's Pops for creamy popsicles our parched mouths stuck to.
We'll have more to share about the visual arts installations, community impact of the festival and more later, but for now, let's talk music and Writers In Residence.
Day two, Saturday, of the Eaux Claires festival rolled in with cloud cover, sticky humidity and a noticeably more laid-back atmosphere (partially due to day one attendees already being familiar with the grounds). Even so, a set from Eau Claire's own gash proved it is never too early for some noise band-fueled head-banging.
In the promotional videos shared by Eaux Claires online ahead of the festival, Justin Vernon teed gash up with a declaration, calling gash the best band right now in his hometown.
"Who knows what the fuckin' Eau Claire sound is?" Vernon starts, downtown's Mousetrap Tavern the scene for this particular video, gash's Ricky Christenson dragging on a cigarette out front. "Everyone you know has a favorite band. To get every single person to agree is pointless. But sometimes everyone just knows what the best thing is. Right now in Eau Claire that band is..."
For locals not keyed into the area music scene, or for those who traveled to our slice of the country for Eaux Claires (and if that's the case, read Evan Minsker's pre-festival writeup on 'em), the in-a-nutshell is this: gash has been holding down the punk DIY music niche in this area for about a decade.
The crew has hosted its annual Rash Fest for years, and before that, ran shows out of former house venue The Rash in Eau Claire's Eastside Hill neighborhood. (And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, before Christenson joined the band, he wrote about them in Volume One.)
Listeners shouldn't – can't, really – pin gash's sound down. Overarching descriptors could include wall-of-sound instrumentals, sometimes overpowering the vocalists in live settings, and simply put: experimental noise.
Previous iterations of the band earned them a loyal fan base, surely, but its current form – Logan Nyberg, Mitch Smuhl, Breckelle Bathke, Eric Simmons, Christenson – includes the mesmerizing powerhouse vocalist that is Bathke.
Maybe I'm biased, prone to goosebumps when women and femme rockers are screamers, but Bethke's range from roars to almost-sweet singing wraps the rest of the magic – wickedly fun whammy bar runs with powerful guitar, bass and drum tones – together.
It was a hell of a wake-up set to open day two, by Eau Claire's own. Oh, and the experimental ensemble gained at least one new fan among its peers on the festival's bill – Dijon wore a gash T-shirt during his closing set that day. Maybe he, much like the rest of us, has the bug for that DIY Eau Claire frequency. –McKenna Scherer
When I moved from Minneapolis, Minn. to the Chippewa Valley eight years ago, the weight of what I was departing was not lost on me. Beyond the physical divide between my loved ones, I recognized – even then – that I was stepping away from a deeply connected community of arts and culture that had unconsciously shaped my earliest understandings of the world around me.
Both the Minneapolis and Eau Claire alternative scenes have endured their own hardships alongside rising triumphs. In my ongoing balance between the two places I’ve called home, Gully Boys have served as a constant anchor.
It took seeing Kathy Callahan, Nadi McGill, Natalie Klemond and Mariah Timm – the best of friends who have grown this band to what it's become today – performing live on day two of the Eaux Claires music festival to remind me of what it truly means to embrace authenticity and love where you are from.
“Performance is a collaborative effort between the performer and the crowd and it just means so much when it’s not a one-sided conversation,” McGill, drummer of Gully Boys, told me later that day. “The crowd really participated … I think we had more people jumping than we’ve ever had (at a show) ever.”
It's true, you might have caught me and other V1 staffers dancing enthusiastically to songs from their 2025 self-titled record, “Me & You” and “Big Boobs,” or raging out to “Murderapolis.” This song in particular, served as a powerful reminder of the stark human injustices unfolding beyond the festival grounds, echoed across the Twin Cities and the entire nation.
“We’re so proud to be from Minneapolis. We’re a trans sanctuary state,” Nadi shouted on stage to hundreds of attendees. “People call it 'Murderapolis' because they’re scared of it. Good! Stay out if you’re scared.”
The band even saw puppeteers from the Minnesota-based In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) dancing amongst the crowd. Once again setting the stage for collaboration between artists of many mediums at the Carson Park festival grounds.
For many locals, Saturday’s Gully Boys’ set serves as a precursor for their return to LIVE at LEONA’s in downtown Eau Claire this October, for their “My Big Fat Gay Tour.” Needless to say, I cannot wait for their return and to see all the locals in attendance, with new Gully Boys merch on full display.
Whether playing to massive crowds of over 40,000 on the Minnesota Yacht Club stages, the less than 12,000 at Eaux Claires or appearing before just a couple hundred people at a local pizzeria venue – Gully Boys have established a standard of authenticity and fervor for the alternative which transcends every dimension of their music.
“You are never going to be able to go see an artist on the big stages if they don’t play the small stages first,” McGill continued. “And, if those small stages leave because people aren’t investing in the up-and-coming bands – gritting their teeth and getting in the shit – then what? What comes after that?” –Evelyn Nelson
The sleeper hit of this year's Eaux Claires easily goes to the Writers In Residence lineup. Spearheaded in part by beloved New Auburn native and New York Times bestselling author Michael Perry, longtime friend and mentor of Justin Vernon, upwards of 20 writers of all styles and subjects were curated for the revival fest year.
Holding down much of the just-beyond-the-stages grounds proved a perfect choice for this lineup. The Chippewa Valley Museum's tree-canopied spaces, with historic buildings like the Sunnyview Schoolhouse, were host to those writers and crowds of attendees. That kind of reaction from fest-goers was likely a surprise for the writers.
Adam Voith, Writers In Residence co-curator alongside Perry, shared this sentiment with The Current ahead of his own speaker sessions at Eaux Claires: "We're in a bit of a crisis with reading at the time and there is not a fix coming. There is no fix coming."
"I think a lot of the writers that are coming, are really focused on the smallest approaches we can find to make an impact on letting people know what's important about reading and writing," he continued.
And yet, it was quite the contrary scene within the Chippewa Valley Museum's logging museum and schoolhouse, where dozens of festivalgoers sat patiently – shoulder to shoulder – for just about every single session with the Writers In Residence.
The lineup, alongside Perry and Voith, included visual sketch artist and nonfiction writer, Nishant Jain, known for his 'sneaky art'; Wisconsin Poet Laureate and multi-form artist Brenda Cárdenas; former Poet Laureate, Eau Claire's own Nicholas Gulig; Chippewa Falls' own, bestselling author Nickolas Butler; Minnesota-based playwright and organizer Katie Ka Vang, among others.
There was a lot of overlap, of course, between the musical and entertainment performances and the Writers In Residence – hey, there were two days to jam-pack everyone into – but just before the end of day two, I caught Michael Perry for about 20 minutes at the Dotters Books booth.
He was honest about his and co-curator Adam Voith’s attempts to create a Writers In Residence lineup which spanned the tapestry of writers’ styles – from comic art to plays, novels to poetry, essays and more – and identities.
Katie Ka Vang’s event, a reading from her regionally acclaimed “Hmong Futures” play followed by a Q&A, was fresh on my mind. An Asian American myself, that idea of inclusion was one I asked Mike about at the top.
“I’m very imperfect at this, but (we are) just trying to make sure that the festival is representative of our entire community,” Mike shared. “To me, it’s just, on a practical level, a matter of inviting neighbors together.
“Then – this is important – inviting your neighbors, and stepping back,” he said.
Both Katie and Mike recalled their initial phone call about the festival, to me. Had that first-time connection gone any other way (an hour-long, positive conversation) Katie likely would not have made the drive from Minnesota to Eau Claire for the festival.
Booking for Eaux Claires is interesting and, in some ways, difficult, Mike said. Because of the nature of the festival – one that leans into and evokes unexpected collaborations or moments – he asks writers for a lot of trust in showing up and rolling with the punches.
This year’s Writers In Residence was an embodiment of that. One-on-one readings, open mics for attendees, workshops and panels, Q&As and more required buy-in from the audience – and there was plenty of it.
“My overall thought is just gratitude,” Mike said of the nearly-completed festival run. “There are, frankly, simpler ways to go about putting on (a festival) … I’ll say, I’m three rings off from the White Hot Center; I’m not making the big decisions as much, but I’ve witnessed that (intention).”
“But ultimately,” he continued, “it has nothing to do with us. It has to do with the artists themselves, and then the audience, and what I love about the audience here, it shows up for Eaux Claires.” –McKenna Scherer
Hmong Futures + Q&A with Katie Ka Vang
If you live in the Midwest, you may have already heard – or seen (if so, I’m jealous) – Katie Ka Vang’s newly released, already acclaimed play, “Hmong Futures: The Future of Us.” An intergenerational story exploring what it takes for the central Hmong family to try and trudge through the mud from surviving to thriving.
Katie and Brooke Jee-in Newmaster, former Eau Clairian and musician/artist/organizer, played the parts of Zhong and Maly – the grandma and 16-year-old granddaughter, in “Hmong Futures” – for the reading.
A couple dozen of us filled the seats in front of the Sunnyview schoolhouse, the porch of which Katie and Jee-in sat to speak, while many dozens more stood or wandered nearby.
Immediately, Katie is cool and confident. “Thanks for being here everybody,” she starts. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect but cool, go Eau Claire. Anybody from Minnesota in the house? (Whoops and hollers, in response.) Oh shit, that’s what’s up!”
Katie jokes (?) she guilt-tripped Jee-in to being her counterpart in the reading that day, and they fold into their characters to deliver dialogue which offers a glimpse into the layered, complicated familial relationships – and humor – “Hmong Futures” has been applauded for.
"Hmong Futures" premiered at Minnesota's Theater Mu this spring with sold-out – or nearly so – crowds at each showing. A shot from the play, with its well-produced staging, pictured. (Photo by Rich Ryan / The Stages of MN)It brings both tears to my eyes and a smile to my lips a number of times in the 15-minute reading. It is clear, Katie leads with honesty and lived experience, and her sarcasm and wit aid her well in creative endeavors as well as casual conversation.
Those traits played out during the Q&A, which saw several people come up to the mic to offer their thoughts and questions to Katie and Jee-in. Those folks had traveled from California or around the Midwest.
Afterwards, Katie and I sat at the steps of one of the logging museum’s buildings and chatted for longer than even her session had run.
Katie is the seventh and youngest child in her immediate family, and the only of her siblings who was born in the U.S. Her father, at the age of 13, served in the Secret War; that background and her mother’s own complicated past has impacted Katie’s siblings in different ways.
Another differentiator between herself and her siblings, is her career path. An artist and organizer with an arts nonprofit background – making her an "anomaly" among her family, she said – Katie has learned to lead with unabashed honesty in her work.
She offered that to me, too, in our conversation. She didn’t have a personal relationship with Mike Perry or Adam Voith, the Writers In Residence co-curators, before this Eaux Claires opportunity sprang up. Still, she was pleasantly surprised by the reaction from those who attended her session, and the emotion with which it was met.
Later in our conversation, after a friend gave her a dish of melting cotton candy ice cream from the Chippewa Valley Museum, Katie shared her participation in Eaux Claires was not without its critique by POC friends and peers. It has to be pointed out, the Minneapolis area is far more diverse – with a far more robust Hmong community – than Eau Claire.
“Coming here, I did get shit too, I’m not gonna lie,” Katie shared. “I have social justice and movement worker friends (who said) ‘You’re gonna go do this white festival?’ I hear them, and also, they don’t pay my bills or know my interactions with Adam and Mike … (which has) so far been nothing but kindness.”
Of the vignettes our conversation swirled into and out of, her thoughts on the power and intersectionality of art has stuck with me deeply.
“I think art is the only doorway that keeps people safe,” she said, finishing her cotton candy ice cream. “You think you’re (coming to art) to escape, but it actually drops you into who you really are.” –McKenna Scherer
With a *click* of her baby blue kitten heels, Wisconsin’s own Monica Martin – who made her first 2026 Eaux Claires appearance during Vernon’s Bon Dylan set on Friday night – stepped up to the football field stage around 4pm for what quickly became one of the most attended sets, by the looks of it, on Saturday afternoon.
Martin’s presence during the Bon Dylan set was just one thread in the weekend’s tapestry of artist collaboration; just an hour or two earlier on Saturday, she also joined the Larry Goldings Trio to offer mesmerizing melodic support and vocals to the trio’s “You Don’t Know Me.”
She, like many other festival guests, coordinated with the visual aesthetic of the festival itself; Martin adorned striking red tones that drew nearly as much admiration from the audience as both her ethereal vocal performance and her musings on collaborations with Vernon.
During her set, she also gave a sweet, lyrical nod to her roots in PHOX, her previous experimental folk-pop group that originally got its start in the southern part of the Badger state.
Whether it be through her solo work today or the nostalgia of bands gone by, Martin’s performance ethos wanders through “romantic fuckery” (her words, not mine) a perfect splash of pop melodies amidst blues whispers.
Whether not it was intended to be the central focus, I'll absolutely be taking a few styling tips from Martin's curated collection of bright hues for my own wardrobe following Eaux Claires.
In what felt like one heartbeat, the afternoon soon dissolved into a blur of movement and melody – from the rhythmically charged Revelations (A Retrospective of the Minneapolis Sound) to the profoundly influential sounds of New Orleans with Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas and the raw, vulnerable storytelling of Samia (a welcome addition to the lineup, after Daniel Caesar dropped out). –Evelyn Nelson
By 9pm, the festival’s thousands of guests scurried toward the baseball stage, pressing closer to the barricade in anticipation of headliner Dijon. The air was thick with more than just an unwavering humidity; whispers of a surprise guest were realized as one unforgettable facet of previous Eaux Claires iterations burst onto the stage: Francis and the Lights.
Emerging in a whirlwind of movement and his tell-tale leaps and dancing, a ten-minute surprise set from Francis was met by adoring howls from the crowd – both from sheer joy at seeing the familiar face from previous festivals and because the project had seemingly evaporated around 2020.
There he was, in the flesh, with humble words to share with his Eau Claire fanbase and musical favorites to perform.
“This place taught me so much; it taught me to be alive,” Francis shared with the crowd ahead of performing his newest, unreleased track “Spirit Comes.”
“Let’s wave goodbye to the past and hello to the future,” he declared.
If this year's Eaux Claires were to have a theme song, it could very well belong to Francis and the Lights' track “Friends,” featuring Bon Iver. –McKenna Scherer & Evelyn Nelson
Last but certainly not least, Dijon graced the stage with heartfelt praise for the Eaux Claires get together, naming it among his most cherished festival experiences.
If you happened to be one of the fortunate festival-goers who caught a glimpse of Dijon Duenas wandering the grounds, you know just how true that felt. Whether he was relaxing in the Faire Field or spending quality time with Joanie Del Santo – his wifey and musical muse – Dijon's presence was both unmistakable and incredibly down to earth.
(This is our chance to give a quick, heartfelt shout-out to Dijon for taking the time to chat with Volume One and allowing us to grab a quick photo next to the kinda rusting bleachers! You absolutely rule.)
During his performance a little after 9pm, Dijon further extended his gratitude to the tranquil landscapes of the Chippewa Valley and how our serene environments fostered his collaboration with Vernon on the track “Higher” from his recent album, Baby.
The concluding set of the festival was a deeply emotional and physically passionate performance, as Dijon seamlessly transitioned between raw vocals, guitar, synthesizer and more.
There was a raw intensity in his live facial expression, allowing even those farther back in the crowd to feel the profound link between his musical talents and sense of self.
Dijon’s live rendition of “Talk Down” from his second record Absolutely shifted away from its original soft pop-driven storytelling and instead, drew attention to heavy percussive elements that pierced straight through the chest – proving his continual innovations to reimagine the music he created many moons ago.
Most importantly, the crowd fully shared in the experience; singing voices (and passionate yells) filled the air along with Dijon's incisive vocals. It was quite the finale for this year's Eaux Claires gathering; it left us with a shared frequency that far outweighs any sore feet or sunburns. –Ethan Kulinski & Evelyn Nelson
Catch a closer look (or 150+ of them) at day two of the 2026 Eaux Claires festival – with music, art and writing landscapes aplenty – online at VolumeOne.org. Coming up next in our batting order, the art installations and broader community impact!
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