David Michael Miller
Fête de Marquette, the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center's largest fundraiser, is canceled this year.
The dominoes keep falling.
Fête de Marquette, the largest annual fundraiser for the nonprofit Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, has been canceled. It’s just the latest summer festival casualty due to COVID-19 and the need for social distancing. Other festivals canceled in recent days include Marquette Waterfront Festival, postponed until June 12-13, 2021, which supports the Marquette Neighborhood Association and Sugar Maple Music Festival, organized by the nonprofit Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective, which was moved to Aug. 6-7, 2021.
Wil-Mar will be launching an online giving campaign to make up for the lost revenue from Fête. “We hope that the people who would buy a raffle ticket or spin the wheel or buy a drink at Fête will consider showing their support in this new way,” Wil-Mar Executive Director Gary Kallas says in a news release. “The people we serve rely on it.”
The Willy Street Co-op annual meeting, which has taken place on the opening night of Fête for many years, will happen virtually this year.
As of now, three later summer fests also benefiting Wil-Mar, or organized with the center’s support, are still on the schedule: AtwoodFest, July 25-26 (which also benefits the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association and Barrymore Theatre); Orton Park Festival, Aug. 27-30 (benefiting MNA); and Willy Street Fair, Sept. 19-20 (also benefiting Common Wealth Development). “We remain hopeful on the other, later-in-the-summer, events. The notion of a summer absent live music events simply breaks our hearts,” Kallas says in an email.
Currently the state’s safer at home order continues until May 26, so fests early in the season are already canceled, including May’s Festa Italia in Fitchburg, a fundraiser for Italian Workmen’s Club, and Syttende Mai in Stoughton and New Glarus Music Fest, both fundraisers for local service organizations. June cancellations include the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society chamber music festival, Mount Horeb Summer Frolic, a benefit for local parks and recreation, and Dragon Arts Fair in DeForest, a fundraiser for local arts scholarships.
Outside Dane County, the biggest festival of them all, Summerfest in Milwaukee, has moved from midsummer to three weekends in September, and Driftless Music Gardens’ Bonfire Music and Arts Festival is rescheduled for June 10-12, 2021.
Other early festivals are rescheduling to later in the summer. Brat Fest is moving from its traditional Memorial Day weekend slot to Aug. 28-30. Verona Hometown Days has been rescheduled from early July to Aug. 21-23. The Pursuit of Happiness Sessions June dates are canceled; probable replacement dates in August are yet to be confirmed. And Isthmus Jazz Festival, traditionally a June event, will be rescheduled.
Events in support of Isthmus’ journalism share a similar fate, with Madison Craft Beer Week and Uncorked both postponed indefinitely; the annual Paddle and Portage is canceled for 2020.
