A New Direction With The Heart Of Eugene
Newly appointed executive director Patrick Hosfield of the WOW Hall in downtown Eugene, plans on adding to the success of the venue and making it as community driven as possible.
A little church building sitting on the corner of 8th & Lincoln, has been a safe haven to the city of Eugene since its founding by Eugene Skinner in 1862. Since then, the building has risked termination, but has been saved by its community time and time again. With generations of owners, donors, and members, the WOW Hall is an anchor in the city of Eugene for the arts, whether music, charity events, or even weddings.
Patrick Hosfield, is the newly appointed executive director of the WOW Hall where he helps maintain the building, oversees the logistical sides of keeping the venue trending forward, and coordinating events alongside the venue’s booker, Skyeler Williams. As the new Executive Director, Patrick is working on seeing how much he can lean into making the WOW Hall as community driven as possible. Whether that may be working with non profits for fundraisers, working with the city for national holidays, or even weddings. “People occasionally will rent the venue for weddings. We want to lean into that,” Hosfield said.
Hosfield earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature from Harvard University and later completed a master’s degree in music at Rutgers University. “After getting out of college, I knew I wanted to get into the music world somehow,” he said. “Music in general is a way people build community.” After graduating, Hosfield began his career at Carnegie Hall in New York City, focusing on fundraising and drafting grant proposals for the venue.
Growing weary of what he describes as the “big-city, East Coast success ethic,” and amid the uncertainty of the 2008 Great Recession, Hosfield began searching for jobs on the West Coast. He had heard about the Oregon Bach Festival through his choral director while studying at Rutgers University, and when he saw an opening with the festival in Eugene, he applied—landing the job just two months later.
Looking for a new opportunity, Hosfield saw the WOW Hall was in need of a new Executive Director. Having experience working for many music venues, Hosfield felt it would be a perfect fit. He even compared the WOW to his previous employer and venue Carnegie Hall in New York. “The comparison comes very naturally to me,” Hosfield said. “The WOW Hall is a kind of Carnegie Hall for Eugene. It’s this wonderful historic space that’s been preserved as both a performance venue and a community gathering place.”
In November of 2025, Hosfield was hired as the new executive director after the previous executive director had stepped down. “The organization is in such good shape right now.” Hosfield said, describing the state of the WOW after the previous executive director, Deborah Maher left it. “She really pulled it together. I’m walking into something she left behind which is a really functional organization and now I feel like I have the opportunity and pleasure of bringing it to the next level.”
For the future of the WOW hall, Hosfield believes there is always work to be done, although because of the positive state of the venue, it is about continuing to do what has been working. “My job is to support the WOW but also just find the opportunities to do more.”
Being in a college town, Hosfield praised their booker Skyeler Williams for his ability to appeal to such a variety of people in Eugene. “He has taste, he has style, he’s cool, he’s all those things you want a booker to be.” Hosfield said.
Skyeler Williams could not be reached for an interview. He serves as the talent booker and director of operations at the WOW Hall and has worked there for more than four years, collaborating with bands such as Built To Spill, Andre Nickatina, Daniel Donato, and many more.
“A perfect example of ways Skyeler works to appeal to the college scene is most recently what we just had being the ‘Sweethearts Ball’ which is basically all college bands playing for Valentine’s Day,” in order to draw in more college students, Hosfield said.
Aidan Wright, a senior at the University of Oregon and bass player in the local college band Verb8im who has played at the WOW, mentioned how special it is “that they always have brought local bands into their venue. I hear from my professors talk about how their college band played at the WOW, so just being able to share that experience with people 30-40 years older than me is pretty cool.”
Verb8im has played the WOW Hall relatively consistently for the past two years, and even won the 2024 annual Battle of the Bands hosted at the WOW Hall. “They (WOW Hall) offer a lot of opportunities for newer bands to get into bigger venues as well as achieving better sound than you would at a house shoe.” said Lucas Vega, vocalist and guitarist of Verb8im, describing the support WOW Hall shows to small college bands.
The WOW Hall has been molded to fit Eugene’s quirks and identity, and in doing so, has become the heart of Eugene’s community. With shows weekly and more and more events– including weddings– to plan, Patrick Hosfield sees no ceiling in sight for the future of the WOW Hall.
“I have been handed this beautiful thing. I feel a huge sense of responsibility.” Hosfield said. “We have this opportunity to keep the WOW Hall ascending on its path to being the best community center that it can be. There is a great sense of excitement.”