WORT 89.9FM Madison
Willy Street Fair Preview
Andy Moore sits down with Gary Kallas, Director of the WilMar Neighborhood Center, to preview the highly anticipated Willy Street Fair, which takes place this weekend--September 21st-22nd. The fair, which marks the end of Madison's near east side festival season, is more than just a fun event—it’s a vital fundraiser for the community. Kallas explains that proceeds from the fair benefit the WilMar Neighborhood Center and Common Wealth Development, reinforcing the unique role that this and similar festivals, like La Fete de Marquette, play in supporting the community.
Kallas gives listeners a taste of what to expect from the vendors and the festival’s parade. Volunteers are critical to the success of the event, and Kallas notes that it takes a substantial team to coordinate everything, from traffic to stage setup.
- Broadcast on:
- 20 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Hi, I'm Andy Moore, your Friday host of 8 o'clock buzz. Thanks for spending your mornings with us. We love bringing you this blend of art and music and news and politics and more. In return, we ask that you spend a little to support this show. And it's easy. Go to w-o-r-t-f-m-dot-org-slash-donate. It's the Friday 8 o'clock buzz on Andy Moore, segment three, as Encore predicted in his picks this morning this weekend, and as we've been talking about throughout the hour, this weekend is the one and only Willy Street Fair. This one, folks, is always bittersweet for me. I'm probably not alone in that. You know, the last Near East Side Festival of the Year, it's like the bar time of festivals. The brains, or one of the brains behind the fair, are someone who also oversees the immensely popular Lafayette de Marquette in July. Gary Callis is the director of the Wilmore Neighborhood Center, and he joins us now. Good morning, Gary, and welcome to the Friday buzz. Hey, Andy Moore. Good morning. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Gary, many of our listeners are aware that I, together with lots of other people, volunteer to work at these festivals. And I've come to believe in you and I have talked about this, that many attendees don't have a full knowledge of the good that these festivals like LaFette and Willy Fair do for the community. It's what makes them unique. Talk about that good. Hey, all proceeds from the Willy Street Fair benefit youth programming, both at the Wilmore Neighborhood Center and our partner producing organization Commonwealth Development. Whether it's team job readiness training, placement, team job placement, or what we got going on at Wilmar for teens, we started a couple of years back. We started training teenagers in a festival intern program. Someone, somebody, a number of people need to replace people like you and me, Andy, something, right? Or are we going forever? What are we doing? I think we go forever and we work with kids at the same time. Well, that's, I think that would be the ideal. But you mentioned the intern program and I can think of one individual who came up through that program at East. He used his festival internship experience to apply to get into early admittance into the UW Madison Business School, which is frankly almost unheard of. And now he's planning a degree in business entertainment. So these things are actualized right before our eyes and it's very exciting. How many stages this year and what kinds of music? Well, Willy Street always has four stages, something for the kids, something that the station worked 89.9 produces on Sunday, which is always exciting. The Saturday house techno, electronic music goes on. Personality involved with Word is involved with that too, Angkor. I think you mentioned his name earlier. Then the ever popular folk stage, that has been around for a while, replaced the culture stage many years ago and didn't miss a beat with being a popular area for people to congregate at. But I got to say this. So the entertainment is a really exciting thing, right? Andy, I mean, it really is. Okay. But can I say this, Willy Street Fair? People watching? Is it the best? Sure. I mean, I think when I talk to people and I've been doing these things for 20 plus years, they tell me that's what they like about the Willy Street Fair the most. You got that right. And then we coordinate a parade for them. Well, there you go. You want to get in line. Us is something else. Then we'll take you through the neighborhood and you can just, you know, do what you need to do while you're marching in a parade. And every year there's always a new color, new folks involved with that. And I always get up for the parade. It's one of a kind and let's let people know the parade begins, I think, at 11 a.m. Am I right on that on Sunday? Every every year, 11 a.m. Jim Wildman. Okay. The bubble Cadillac says, let's go. I don't think it's ever been 11 or one. Jim says 11. We go. That's awesome. Yes. Get in line or the parade is going to miss you. Gary. Thanks for wedding our whistle this morning for the two splendid days ahead of us and best of luck this weekend. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. So welcome. Gary Callis is the director of the Wilmar neighborhood center.
Andy Moore sits down with Gary Kallas, Director of the WilMar Neighborhood Center, to preview the highly anticipated Willy Street Fair, which takes place this weekend--September 21st-22nd. The fair, which marks the end of Madison's near east side festival season, is more than just a fun event—it’s a vital fundraiser for the community. Kallas explains that proceeds from the fair benefit the WilMar Neighborhood Center and Common Wealth Development, reinforcing the unique role that this and similar festivals, like La Fete de Marquette, play in supporting the community.
Kallas gives listeners a taste of what to expect from the vendors and the festival’s parade. Volunteers are critical to the success of the event, and Kallas notes that it takes a substantial team to coordinate everything, from traffic to stage setup.