The Longest Night Comes to the Cultural Center

Many Musicians Marvel Masses Amid

Longest Night Merrymaking

The Longest Night Comes to the Cultural Center

[Feature image: letterpress print made by local artist Nikki Thompson of Barn Owl Press]

The longest, and often darkest, night of the year approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Cultural Center in New York Mills offers a way to spend those extra hours of darkness: their Longest Night Music Festival  scheduled for Thursday, December 21, 2017.

The Longest Night is an annual concert which brings together various and varied local and regional musical artists to each play a short set. The spirit of the event is to share in merrymaking and music-making on the winter solstice. Audience and performers together bond in the warmth of community and commonality while the chilling December winds blow outside.

In the line-up this year are: Chasing Clarence, Day Gun, Laurie Kallevig, The Longest Night House Band, Ben Ranson, Dave Virnala, and the Wadena Puppeteers.

Chasing Clarence, a Park Rapids Trio that includes local newspaper reporter Eric Bervig, is Northern Minnesota’s undefinable folk-rock ensemble who brings a surprise guest to the Longest Night. Day Gun is the latest musical incarnation by Michael Dagen of Hewitt, MN; he returns after a rock-the-house performance last year. Longest Night first-timer, Laurie Kallevig, brings her ukulele from the dark jungles of India to the chilly streets of New York Mills.

The Longest Night House Band makes its 2017 world premiere! Producer Dennis Happel is joined by talented musicians Chris Frost, Lou Hoglund, Erin Swyter, Phil Gilbert, and Colin Hoglund. Returning again are Ben Ranson, off the heels of a successful solo tour, and Dave Virnala, local favorite and perennial Open Mic strummer. Ranson is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music.

The Wadena Puppeteers bring another first to the Longest Night: puppeteering! Lisa Winter, Tamara Moore, and Emily Uselman, with the help, support, and talent of students from St. Ann’s Catholic Church, bring a lively puppet performance to the stage at the Cultural Center.

The show starts at 7:00 p.m. This concert is free to attend and all are welcome. Refreshments are served and a cash bar with beer and wine is available.

For more information, please call the Cultural Center at (218) 385-3339 or visit the Center’s website at www.kulcher.org.

About the Cultural Center in New York Mills:

The Cultural Center in New York Mills is a rural hub for creativity, community vitality, and lifelong learning in the arts. We offer visitors intimate opportunities to encounter art and artists in our 80-seat concert listening room, two galleries in a historic building, a gift store featuring local artists, an artist residency program, a sculpture park, and a variety of opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Since our incorporation in 1990, we have been passionate about connecting people to artists and rich cultural experiences in rural Minnesota, celebrating the local and being a window to the world.