This past July, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, along with Aaron Dessner of The National, gathered a multitude of artists in his hometown of Eau Claire, WI for the inaugural iteration of Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival. Held on the banks of the Chippewa river, Eaux Claires offered a refreshing take on the standard festival fare, with acts ranging fromSufjan Stevens and Allan Kingdom, to Sylvan Esso and Marijuana Deathsquads.
The festival also marked the return of Bon Iver, with Vernon performing some of the first new material following his acclaimed self-titled release in 2011. Eaux Claires was an evident success, and this morning, Vernon and Dessner announced a reprise for summer 2016. No word on the official lineup yet, although Vernon did recently invite James Blake to the festival during Blake's BBC Radio 1 Residency. Early bird tickets go on sale today, but in the meantime, peep a montage of what went down in Wisconsin last summer, set to a stunning live version of Bon Iver's "Babys".
