Eau Claire Ragtime Festival Events
Afterglows | Concerts | | Pre-Concerts |Meals and Music | Concessions | Continuous Live Music | Twin Piano Lounge | Vintage Dress | Ragtime Worship | Sing-A-Longs | Ragtime University | Silent Films | Labyrinth | Ticket Pool | Extreme Open Piano
Afterglows
What happens at the conclusion of our Ragtime Evening Concerts? What else - more ragtime and related music! Ragtime fans really love the music well as being interested in the history of the music and the composers. The Afterglows are a time for the headliners, other players and fans to mingle together in an informal atmosphere as they listen to and talk about the music.
The Afterglows at Eau Claire's Ragtime Festival take place in Ingram Hall, next to the concert location. The Afterglows feature continuous live music and root beer floats with salted peanuts in the shell. For a $2 charge you can enjoy our famous root beer floats made with old fashioned vanilla ice cream and Root Beer in the barrels. Concessions also remain open for those who would rather sip on coffee or soda as they enjoy the afterglow. Money from the floats goes directly to our agency beneficiary.
Pre-Concerts
Thirty-five minutes before the start of each concert we present a cavalcade of local, regional and national ragtime and classic jazz performers. These folks showcase their talents and further demonstrate the broad range of music to which the American public was exposed to in the first quarter of the 20th Century: Ragtime, Popular songs of the Day, Classic Jazz, and Vaudeville Songs can be heard from individuals spanning the continent during the course of the four weekend concerts. Each pre-concert will feature different performers, many with their own recordings, and most with a history of performances at other festivals across the country.
Concerts
Four all-different concerts constitute the heart of the fun and fund-raising event. Concerts are held in the 500-seat sanctuary of Eau Claire's 1st Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC), 310 Broadway St. midway between the lower UW-Eau Claire Campus area of Water Street and Lake Street on the west side of the Chippewa River. The main floor seats 400. The balcony seats 100. Doors open 45 minutes before the concert. There is open seating on a first-come, first-seated basis. The only exception is for those who may be performing or announcing. One concert is Friday afternoon, one Friday evening, one Saturday afternoon, and the final one is Saturday Evening. (see below for Sunday worship details, separate from Festival).
ADVANCED TICKETS NECESSARY for all dinners. Please order tickets ahead of time, they sell out fast!! Seating limit for all three meals:
- Friday Welcome Dinner and Music-
Friday at 5pm - Seating limit 72. We usually sell out, so get your tickets early in the fall when they become available.
- Saturday Night Dinner and Music - another sellout - seating limited to 72.
- Sunday Catered Buffet and
Frigid Follies: - All
featured performers and guests in a grand farewell winter music bash. Seating limit 72.
Friday: The dinners are by ticket only. During the evening soda, water and coffee, along with snacks, will be available at reasonable prices. We'll have $2 Root beer floats after the concert with free peanuts.
Saturday 11-2: Lunch: Casual lunch with reasonable prices and a free show at the same time! Vegetarian entrees available. No advance purchase necessary. First come, first serve.
All the food is fresh, home-made by the youth and parents of First Congregational UCC. Proceeds will help the youth to travel to Biloxi, MS, this year.
Lunch items include: Hot dogs, salad, chips, home-made chili, vegetarian chili, and desserts.
Saturday Dinner: by ticket only. Again, after the evening concert there will be $2 root beer floats and music, along with snacks and other beverages.
Changes to note: NO BREAKFAST AVAILABLE ON SATURDAY. Popcorn and Water will be available during the Silent Movies.
Ragtime, early jazz, blues, novelty and vaudevilles tunes will be heard throughout the weekend in the form of continuous live music by a wide variety of performers. Most of this activity will take place in Ingram Hall, and in the twin piano lounge in the Chapel.
This year's Ragtime Festival will include a Twin Piano Room. Twin pianos attract players and listeners like ants to a picnic. One player does the melody and the other plays counterpoint in a sound totally different than a duet on the same piano - although duets will be played for sure. Check it out!
The ragtime and early jazz heydays often are cited as spanning the later 1800's -1930's. Vintage dress refers to the clothes worn during these years to balls, parties, dances and everyday wear. It was all part of the scene.
This Ragtime Festival is an opportunity to enter into a period of American History when ragtime, early jazz, and blues were the primary forms of American popular music. Coming in period dress, or even adding some accessory that suggests this broad era, adds to the gaiety and helps set the mood for this weekend.
Please check out more Vintage Dress history and information. Admission to the Silent Movies is free to those in period dress.
Worship in Ragtime has been a feature of this festival, generating spirit filled enthusiasm. A unique service, the specifics of our gospel service for next year are coming into place. We know it will be a blessing to all who gather with us to worship God in Ragtime.
The always-popular sing-a-long atmosphere of years past is recreated during a portion of the evening afterglows in Ingram Hall amidst the root beer floats and peanuts. The songs are the big million-sellers from the Ragtime, Early Jazz, WWI, Vaudeville, Roaring 20's, Depression and Prohibition eras in our American past. We have printed sing-along songbooks that make it easy and fun to join in these choruses. There's a very good possibility most in attendance will learn/ re-learn more than one good, old, understandable song. Remember when you could holler out a number and the piano player would immediately begin playing the song in the sing-along book corresponding to that number? Well, we're going to set aside some special times at Eau Claire's Annual Ragtime Festival to enjoy and experience some of that same group entertainment - where the root beer float crowd is as much a part of the act as the performers.
Back by popular demand, the sing-along events will utilize a variety of players and a wide variety of old songs from before the turn of the last century to about 1960. There's something about hollering out numbers and then belting out the tunes. Be prepared for fun. You won't be disappointed.
Always informative and entertaining, our Mini-"U" talks offer a wealth of knowledge about the ragtime era in American history. Whether you are a long-time ragtime fan or curious and interested to learn more about this unique American contribution to the music of this planet, these presentations will help you to reach a better understanding of how America's music was shaped. Check out the Symposia page for more details.
Our chapel becomes a darkened turn-of-the-last-century nickelodeon as ragtime artists take to the Steinway to accompany two sets of classic silent films on the 8-foot screen. Seating for 125 lucky souls is on a first-come basis. Tickets are sold on-site Saturday. So take in your popcorn, but finish your beverage in Ingram Hall and walk into a 1920-something American theater. You had best be prepared for lots of laughs.
It is also impressive to watch piano accompaniment in total darkness. Through all the antics on the screen, the pace of the piano playing remains steady with the action. This is a fun event for all ages. For youth of today, it is a chance to experience as close as possible the type of entertainment their great grandparents enjoyed long before radios, television and computers were ever around.
Those in period dress receive free admission!
The 20- foot canvas labyrinth, available for your walking throughout the Ragtime Festival, is of the design of the outdoor labyrinth which is at Phoenix Park, downtown Eau Claire. If the weather isn't too cold, you might consider visiting the Park. But, we have a "warm labyrinth" here, and it will be located in the lower level of the church, follow the signs for Labyrinth/Meditation.
There are as many ways to walk a labyrinth as there are people who walk it. During the walk into the center can be a time of shedding distractions and releasing your many thoughts. The center is a place for quiet reflection, where you can stay as long as you like. The journey out, on the same pathway, can represent a passage and a going forth.
The walk is free. Make it a part of your Ragtime experience.
WALKING THE LABYRINTH
- Focus on the rhythm of your breath.
- Walk at a chosen pace.
- Follow the single path to the center and back out
- Pause in the center as long as you wish
- Step aside to pass
- Be considerate of others
The Ticket Pool has been established to enable those in our community who would like to attend these concerts but cannot afford to do so. It also allows individuals or businesses to contribute through tickets donated to the ticket pool. Tickets are given from the pool to members of our community such as residents of Beacon House (a temporary home for homeless families with children), clientele of Habitat for Humanity, Bolton Refuge House for battered women, etc. Those receiving tickets in this manner do not know who purchased the ticket and those purchasing the ticket do not know to whom the ticket goes. If you would like to purchase an additional ticket or all-event package (adult or student), please note this on the order form. In the event tickets already purchased cannot be used due to some unplanned event, the ticket pool can always make good use of them.
Eau Claire's Ragtime Festival is poised to give new meaning to the term "open piano".... A functional upright will be positioned near the Broadway ramped entrance available for any who care to play this piano out in the open! It will be available for playing and for photo ops for unbelievers in the hinterlands. A large thermometer will record the temperature less wind chill at the time. Weather will be a factor: cold, snow, wind, ice = piano outside. Rain, drizzle, mist, fog = no piano outside.