Weather part of great music booking and mix of vendors and events
The sun and clear skies were two of the stars of the 2015 Willy Street Fair.
Every Willy Street Fair seems like the best, but this one felt extra special. After monsoonal rains pelted southern Wisconsin right up until the early morning hours of Saturday the sky was flawless for the next forty hours.
The weather brought out the crowds and fair organizers Common Wealth Development and Wil-Mar Center presented a smartly programmed event with each music stage featuring great acts without an overloaded schedule.
After high energy world music all afternoon on the Main Stage Saturday, the partnership with the Madison World Music Festival paid off with the Ester Rada, the day’s final performance. Her soaring vocals and funky backing band delighted the crowd which filled Plan B’s parking lot.
At the same time, magic was happening on Brearly Street as Colombian EDM duo Mitu made their Midwestern Debut with style providing transfixing beats that had the crowd pulsating to their music featuring mixers and live percussion.
The Folk Stage featured a solid two days of acts while the Underground Stage would not be intimidated pumping out the best of punk and hard rock on Sunday.
Colombian EDM duo Mitu headlined a strong Saturday music lineup at Willy Street Beats.
Sunday always starts with the parade and it was a tremendous one at that. Like the other parts of the fair it was funky, eclectic and imaginative which is the only way we like it here in the Marquette neighborhood.
While the parade takes all comers, it wasn’t overloaded and it was hard to keep up with all the fun.
On the Main Stage Mama Digdown’s Brass Band had the disciples jumping and hooting for more, The Mustache converted more revelers to their cause as they cheered until the evening twilight signaled the end of a wonderful day.
The mix of vendors was a nice surprise with some traditional retail and food with some new ones which was refreshing. The best new event was Sunday’s pumpkin weigh-off with at least one entrant weighing-in at 2000 pounds.
Winter doesn’t start tomorrow, but the summer of 2015 in our little part of wonderful was one to remember. Let’s try it again next year.
Great photos! Thank you. It was a beautiful day and one of the best fairs ever.
Thanks for posting all the great photos! We missed a bunch of the parade participants from our seat on Willy St. near the end, so it was nice to see those we missed in photos!