a student performs as a jester to add levity to the evening's festivities. Additionally, each year different students are chosen to play the roles of King and Queen. Guests attending the madrigal dinner often dress in period costumes, though no dress code is required. Beyond choral music, the madrigald dinner also incorporates modern Christmas music. Dishes such as wassail, beef vegetable soup and stuffed pork chops are served.
=== Viennese Ball ===
The annual Viennese Ball has been a tradition for over 40 years at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. A formal event, the ball "recalls the culture, history and music of 19th-century Vienna." It is modeled on the New Year's Eve Kaiser Ball and showcases the University Women's Concert Choral and Singing Statesmen ensembles, which open the evening with several pieces including the American and Austrian national anthems, University Symphony Orchestra, which performs waltzes and polkas from the Strauss Era, and the Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble I, which plays music …
