The annual Eaux Claires festival, held on 16 acres of land in Eau Claire, Wisconsin draws thousands of music lovers to the small town, many festival goers are UW students. This year 75 students from UW-Eau Claire got first-hand production and technical assistance experience at the festival.
The Leader-Telegram reports:
One week ago Jason Anderson and a team of UW-Eau Claire students constructed art installations, stages and other structures for use in the second annual Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival that wrapped up Saturday.
For two days, the 16 acres of festival grounds hosted 55 bands performing on eight stages for more than 20,000 people. Anderson and students on the event production crew were behind the scenes running nearly the entire show.
And within the next couple of days, all of that hard work will be torn down. But the valuable experience those students gained will remain with them.
This isn’t the first time UW-Eau Claire students have been integral to the festival’s success. In February 2015 coordinators of the inaugural festival reached out to Anderson, assistant director of conferences and event production at the university, seeking well-trained technicians to serve as stage laborers.
“I said, ‘Really? Because we have 65 of them who already work here for me in that capacity,’” Anderson said. “It led to a meet-and-greet in March 2015, and they realized the students in EPC (event production crew) are real technicians and really a well-trained crew.”
Since then the Eaux Claires festival has become a rich source of summer employment for students across the UW System; innovative collaboration between music festivals and universities and high-impact experiences for UW-Eau Claire students.
For more, visit, Leader-Telegram.
