Fairfield’s newest performing arts venue, the Blue Rose Ballroom and Bistro, is staging a grand opening September 10–12, with a weekend of performances by a number of impressive musical talents. Showcasing the cream of the New Orleans music scene, Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers will kick things off the first night with high-energy New Orleans-style zydeco, followed on the second night by the Grammy-nominated Cha Wa brass band, who will wow audiences with their jazzy funk sound and Mardi Gras style. The third night will feature the legendary Tim Carbone—master fiddler, electric guitar player and singer-songwriter, plus electro-Americana multi-instrumentalist Arthur Lee Land and local musicians performing Grateful Dead sets.
Located in the beautifully renovated Old Armory building on East Broadway Avenue, the Blue Rose has honored its historical roots while creating a new community space for area residents. The Old Armory has a long history as a gathering space. Built in 1901 by Company M of the 54th Infantry of the Iowa National Guard, it served as an armory until a new one was built on Stone Street in 1958. The Old Armory has provided space for many community events over the years, from concerts and basketball games to speaking engagements by presidential candidates.
From Cafe to Major Music Venue
Initially, owner Alex Stanley and his friend Stephen Cardinal wanted to create “a cool cafe with a great sound system.” When Chris Johnson of Johnson Real Estate showed them the Old Armory, they felt they had discovered the perfect place. After the building was purchased, they brought in musician and producer Tim Carbone (of Railroad Earth, The Band, and Phil Lesh and Friends) for his recommendations on creating the best possible musical venue. According to Alex, Tim said, “If you want to get major acts to play there, the venue has to be literally over the top.”
Alex jumped at the challenge. “We’ve done exactly that,” he says. The original idea grew and morphed into the Blue Rose Ballroom and Bistro, a community center with some of the highest quality acoustics in the country. The setup includes a performance stage with a premium sound system, excellent lighting, recording equipment, and a video streaming option, all provided by the most highly decorated company in the professional touring and sound industry, Clair Global. The sound systems use top-of- the-line CODA Audio speakers.
Six-Plus Years in the Making
Working with Chris, Alex added two adjoining buildings to the project—one of them being the old Fairfield Ledger building. Renovations over six and a half years have been extensive, and Chris, as project manager, is proud of the quality level throughout. Basements have been remodeled, floors refinished, walls removed, rooms expanded and created. A second-floor balcony around the ballroom provides additional seating, with fold-down marble tables. “There’s not a bad seat in the place,” Chris says.
The second-floor apartments in the old Ledger building have been refurbished as Airbnb rooms to provide housing for visiting talent. “It’s very unusual for music venues to be able to house the artists,” Alex says, adding that it will be a “vacation rest stop” for touring musicians and an extra perk that will help make Fairfield a music tourism destination.
The entire entertainment complex is now 40,000 square feet, including the ballroom, the adjoining restaurant with commercial kitchen, an additional dining area, another commercial kitchen in the basement, multiple green rooms, a VIP room, a dedicated podcast studio, event rooms, art gallery space, storage space, and apartments. All of the spaces are rentable. Ground-floor entrances to the ballroom and the restaurant are both accessible by ramp, and the ground floor has four handicapped-accessible bathrooms.
Alex feels the Blue Rose is an “amazing art house,” and likes to call it “a temple to excellence in all things.”
The ballroom has a flexible capacity, depending on the event. It has a standing capacity of 900 people. A banquet would seat 200 to 300 people, while a seated concert would fit about 700 people, and a seminar would accommodate 300 to 500 people.
The Restaurant & Lounge
The restaurant will seat 70, with additional outdoor seating planned. Overseen by Forest St. Martin, who has extensive food and beverage service experience, the restaurant will feature a variety of vegetarian and meat dishes, including burgers, chicken sandwiches, veggie burgers, soups, salads, and fries. With a focus on promoting local food producers, the restaurant will follow farm-to-table menus as much as possible. Additionally, all water used for meals and beverages, including the soda fountain, will be purified reverse osmosis water.
The Blue Rose is committed to keeping meals affordable. Typical meals will range from $10 to $20, although celebrity chefs will be brought in for pricier special events.
There will also be a lounge-style area in the adjoining building where people can enjoy the food and ambience. Alex explains that the space is acoustically separate from the main complex, so when there are dances or events in the ballroom, “people in the lounge can be listening to cool jazz or classical or what have you, and have a completely different sonic vibe.” Alex sees the lounge as “the ultimate date-night venue.”
Multi-Genre Entertainment Complex
The dedicated podcast studio and production studio will be available for locally generated and touring podcasts, while the ballroom is a music venue for recording and streaming live events in front of an audience.
“Any talent, whether it’s an artist or a band or a presenter, will be able to create incredible content in the venue,” says marketing director Rachel Anne. “It’s a very versatile event space, a really unique entertainment complex that’s going to allow artists, authors, and musicians to create and curate special events.”
The ballroom and art gallery areas allow artists to do multi-genre presentations. Rachel Anne calls it “a locally centered vision that will have a really incredible national reach.” She also emphasizes that the Blue Rose is committed to keeping event tickets affordable.
A Rising Tide Floats All Ships
Danny Standley, who helped expand Solon’s Big Grove Brewery back in 2013, now works as general manager for the Blue Rose. He feels the new venue will provide “a lot of ways to connect with the community,” while bringing “more of a national draw to Southeast Iowa and Fairfield.” Danny hopes the Blue Rose will remind people that Fairfield is a town worth investing in. “The music venue itself is probably going to be one of the top venues in the Midwest, if not in the United States, or in the world,” he says.
During Danny’s tenure at Big Grove, the brewery opened branches in Iowa City, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids. He says a lot of people were worried that Big Grove would have a negative impact on local businesses, but the opposite has been the case. Big Grove helped these cities thrive.
“A rising tide floats all ships,” he says. “In my experience doing this for over ten years, I just haven’t seen it do anything but positive for communities of this size.” Danny stresses that they want to help revitalize the community. “If we can get people to spend a weekend in Fairfield, everybody wins.”
In response to community concerns about the impact of a new performance venue on the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center and other local venues, Chris says the Blue Rose is committed to coordinating with others to ensure everyone succeeds, adding that they are working closely with the FACC. Alex, in fact, donated funds to update the FACC sound system, lighting, and acoustics with the same cutting-edge technology used at the Blue Rose.
Chris underscores their commitment to hosting a wide range of events and activities at the Blue Rose. “Music is kind of a passion, or the frosting on the cake,” he says. “It’s really not the main thing we will be doing here.” The plan is to have monthly music events featuring nationally touring musicians, alternating with monthly seminars, as well as expos, festivals, and full weekend events. A book fair and a bridal expo are already on the calendar. He says their focus will be community events and seminars, adding that they have done a couple of events for Fairfield High School and one for the MIU Board of Trustees. “We’ll hopefully have a big footprint in the community,” he says.
The Blue Rose is crafting partnerships with local community organizations, other entertainment venues, and educational institutions. “We’re going to be anchoring all sorts of things,” Rachel Anne says. The Blue Rose is currently working closely with Main Street Fairfield, a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to promoting a vibrant downtown, and Rachel Anne looks forward to working with the other entertainment venues in town.
“We envision artists wanting to do the big, bold things, and then have this ability to do intimate events in the town with all our partners on the square,” she says, emphasizing that collaboration, not competition, is the goal.
The Blue Rose is currently working with MIU on future educational programming, such as allowing film students to get real-world experience with the sound and engineering technology in the ballroom. Rachel Anne says they will also have interns working in the front and back of the house.
“I really think we can bring so much life to Fairfield through this building and the nonprofit that Alex has also endowed called Ripple Collective,” she says. According to Chris, the Blue Rose does all of its booking through Ripple. Rachel Anne explains that Ripple will also underwrite and fund other opportunities for educational arts and culture programming in Fairfield, and help fund the Main Street initiatives. “We’ve got a lot of resources to augment and support really cool things,” she says. One of those plans is partnering with Camp Winnarainbow—a California-based summer performing arts camp established by Hugh Romney (Wavy Gravy) and his wife, Bonnie Beecher—to establish a scholarship fund for Fairfield kids. Rachel Anne also loves the idea of sponsoring game nights and creating a safe hangout spot for teens at the Blue Rose.
While Chris acknowledges that the Blue Rose is a high-end facility, he reiterates their commitment to Fairfield and to benefiting everyone in the community. They plan on working with event sponsors to offer free tickets for kids and those who can’t afford them. “We really want to address community needs,” he says.
“We’ve got this amazing town,” Alex says. “I see this as almost a renaissance for Fairfield . . . My dream is to create a big community center that just elevates the whole town, brings business here, and enlivens tourism.”
For more information on events, bookings, and employment opportunities, visit BlueRoseBallroom.com.