The National’s Aaron Dessner and Fred again.. will team up for a special collaborative performance at Eau Claire, WI’s Eaux Claires Festival. The event, which Dessner co-founded with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, will return after an eight-year break from July 24-25. 

“On 24th July im gonna play a one off show with the guy Aaron Dessner at Justin Vernon’s festival Eaux Claires. I’ve been exploring a lot with live improvisation and playing off of different people in a room, and embracing not knowing whats going to happen. I think thats a thing that is becoming increasingly precious to me. So this will be like that I think. Ive been having basically a year away from shows to jus write BUT. These are two of the great musicians of the living world,” Fred again… said in a statement. “I can remember EXACTLY the scene of the first time I heard a national song. Afraid of everyone, and the little glitching guitar part just haunted me. I tried to replicate it over and again. And then I dived all the way into all of their music for years to come. And then Aaron and I actually worked together on a song from secret life!And the music of Justin Vernon is not something I have words for and I never will. So instead I gratefully play his festival in a fundamentally futile attempt to express even a fraction of my gratitude for the way he has shaped my entire existence.”

“I co-founded this festival with Aaron Dessner, and daddy’s coming home. It wouldn’t be a festival without Aaron, without his guidance I would have never even had the idea,” Vernon added, digging into the unique set during a recent press conference at Carson Park Baseball Stadium’s Hank Aaron Plaza. “It’s important to us that we’ve set the lineup such that there’s going to be some time for introspection and looking inward, and then there’s going to be a time to dance…you’re going to get something out of it that would feel unexpected. In the course of the world going the way it is, we could use a little more unexpected. We’ve got a good balance of collaborations, of guest spots, of people that are going to be on the bill and not on the bill, joining people on stages. There’s going to be a lot of people represented, and appropriately so.”

In addition to Dessner and Fred again.. on opening night, Friday, July 24, the Known MPLS choir has also joined the Eaux Claires lineup, slated to appear on Saturday, July 25. The festival’s roster will also boast Bon Dylan’s one-night-only concert event featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and friends, as well as Dijon, Daniel Caesar, Aimee Mann performing Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo, Kevin Morby, Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, Monica Martin, Hotline TNT, Larry Goldings Trio, Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Gully Boys, Bizhiki, The Union feat. Phil Cook, Gash, Urban Classic Presents Revelation: A Retrospective Of The Minneapolis Sound, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas and Black Sabbath Cover Band Rehearsal. A mix of writers-in-residence will round out the weekend offerings.