Harvest Festival

media release: Join us at Allen Centennial Garden between noon to 5pm on Saturday, September 30 to celebrate our second annual Harvest Festival. We’ll have live music, dancing, cooking demonstrations, and storytelling alongside opportunities to learn about different harvest traditions from Dejope (Madison) and around the world. Free and open to the public!

This year, our Harvest Festival will focus on the importance of seeds! To help us highlight the topic, we’ll be hosting new opportunities like a seed swap and cooking demonstrations.

The Harvest Festival’s song, dance, and food celebrates the ongoing Wyman Kitchen Garden which highlights the crops, cuisines, and cultures of our African American, Indigenous, and Latinx community partners. This year our performers will include Chef Yusuf Bin-Rella sharing Afro Diasporic foodways, Natalia Armacanqui and Richard Hildner Armacanqui with Peruvian music and storytelling, Dr. Rebecca Webster an Oneida storyteller, Atimevu a West African drum and dance ensemble, and Liz Voz and Jesse Downs who will play American folk music.

Additional information and updates will be available here.

Allen Centennial Garden is located at 620 Babcock Drive. Free parking is available in Lot 34 at 1480 Tripp Circle; in Lot 36 just west of Steenbock Library; and  in Lot 40 behind Babcock Hall.

The Harvest Folk Festival is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wisconsin Humanities strengthens our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state. The Harvest Folk Festival is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Additional event support comes from the following UW-Madison units:

• Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• European Studies Program
• Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program
• African Studies Program
• Center for Culture, History, and the Environment
• Department of French & Italian