Avrom Farm Party

8/9-11, Avrom Farm, W908 Scott Hill Road, Ripon. Headliners: Friday: Hannah Frances; Saturday: Dehd. $99/weekend ($49 Friday, $69 Saturday).

media release: Avrom Farm began its life in the 1950s as the home and workplace of sculptor-painter Lester Schwartz. The land had been a dairy farm. When Lester moved in, he renamed it after his father, Abraham, and built on its highest point an inviting, mid-century modern home imbued with the naturalistic shapes of his sculptures and paintings.

Over the next several decades, Lester turned Avrom Farm into a veritable museum and sculpture park. He populated its rolling hills with large works made of farm implements (a tractor!) and surplus bottles from the Miller High Life brewery. He taught students at the nearby Ripon College and created paintings that are collected by the Smithsonian.

Meanwhile, Lester’s grandson Hayden Holbert grew up in Chicago making frequent visits to the farm, running around among Lester’s art and eventually planting vegetable seeds in the once-fertile soil, hoping they would grow. Hayden immersed himself in books about animal husbandry and nutrient cycles and in 2013, he enrolled in Warren Wilson College to study sustainable agriculture and to work at the college’s 275-acre pasture-based livestock farm.

After receiving his degree, Hayden returned to Avrom Farm and grew it into a full-time, livestock and vegetable pasture. Using centuries-old techniques, Hayden and fellow farmers restored the land’s soil, increased its biodiversity, and created a symbiotic relationship between pigs, chickens, and vegetables to provide delicious, nutrient-rich food to farmers markets, restaurants, and homes in Wisconsin and Illinois.

In 2018, Hayden and his longtime friend and bandmate Spencer Tweedy organized Avrom Farm Party to promote regenerative agriculture and to share great music and food with friends and strangers. Since then, the festival has grown into hundreds of people’s favorite part of the summer, a time to get away from normal life, an opportunity to discover new artists, and, as of 2024, a fundraiser for food programs to be carried out by a new nonprofit.