Co-creator Michelle Russell says they held the first one to help people recover from the pandemic.
"We were trying to answer a community need for a day of carefree nostalgic bliss, and leave your worries at home. And it had been a year or more of loss for many people and stress for everybody."
Her second goal was to bring the music of Bix Beiderbecke back to the weekend of the Bix 7 road race, and remind the thousands of runners that the race is named for an actual person and a key figure in traditional jazz.
Russell has always thought of Bix weekend to be kind of a "homecoming."
"You know it was always the one time of year you knew you'd see people, family and friends, that you haven't seen all year, or maybe in a couple years. Everybody's home that weekend and you can gather your family in a place where it's large enough that you can all gather."
Major sponsors and people who attended the festival last year all asked her to bring it back, and recently race organizers proposed a multi-year partnership.
And next year, The Heights of the Era will become a two-day event.
The website's FAQ page says the festival "serves to benefit the non-profit organization WVIK 90.3 FM." And the radio station plans to broadcast "live" from the venue.
Here's Jay Pearce talking with Michelle Russell (audio only) before the 2021 Heights of the Era festival.
