The Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival will be back in 2018, on July 6 and 7. The announcement came today via a typically elliptical rollout...actually, it was a literal rollout, as the festival live-streamed video of workers pasting posters into place on a street in Eau Claire. (The posters are around the corner from the Fire House, a commenter recognized.)

The posters included a TinyURL link that led to the festival website, which now features the July dates and a 29-minute sound montage featuring music from artists associated with Justin Vernon, as well as various voices discussing the festival's uniquely collaborative spirit.

Update: On Thursday, the festival officially announced the dates in a press release that read, in part, "Programming and artist information for Eaux Claires IV will not be revealed all at once. Instead, it will be shared gradually over the course of the next several months."

An e-mail to past ticket buyers elaborated, "Eaux Claires was never meant to be fully understood or easily delineated. We know it has a spirit; we know it has a feel. We know we can light up the marquee with certain names and that will precipitate solid mathematics. We’re excited about the names. But we’re gonna drib and drab it out, let it flow like smoke, because we want this festival to fly or fall on feel. It’s not about the bands, it’s about the collection of art and artists reacting with the collection of you. We’re less interested in telling you what it is than you making it what it becomes."

Click here to read our coverage of the festival's first three years.