Katherine Davey, the chair of the Marquette Neighborhood Association organizing committee, knows why this weekend’s Orton Park Festiva is one of the most popular and unique festivals in Madison.

“It’s really the most residential of all the east side festivals. It has a 52-year tradition and it has a very, unique neighborly vibe to it,” Davey tells Madison365. “It started with neighbors dragging grills out in those early years and playing music for each other and has grown over time to be this huge four-day event. But it’s still a great place to see bands and have fun with friends and neighbors. It’s still all about those original components from 50 years ago.

“It’s carried a lot of the quirky traditions from the early years like the cakewalk and a jazz brunch and Cycropia … that is what really sets it apart from the other festivals,” she adds.

Cycropia in Orton Park on Thursday night

Orton Fest started off last night with a bang – like it always does – with a Cycropia aerial dance performance. Using single-point trapeze, bungee, lyra, aerial fabric and custom steel apparatus, Cycropia, formed in Madison in 1989, combines modern dance, athleticism and the magic of defying gravity.

Tonight, things really heat up with a performance by Madison’s own funk cooperative Better Yeti and the popular Fleetwood Mac tribute band Gold Dust Women.

Jane Lee Hooker
Photo by Roland Kampfer

“The people who have been programming the music for the last four years have really been trying hard to highlight a lot of the great local talent we have here,” Davey says. “We really look for neighborhood people that we want to highlight; there’s a lot of musicians on the east side. We love the local acts and this year we have some younger performers who are up and coming in the area.

“More often these east side summer festivals have a lot of middle-aged people attending them so we want to appeal to the younger crowd, too,” Davey adds. “We’ve been trying to feature something every year that will draw a younger crowd. Last year we brought Twin Peaks and we probably had our biggest Instagram presence ever. This year, we’re bringing in a couple bands that will appeal to younger people including Diane Coffee.”

Diane Coffee, is a former Disney voice actor and touring drummer for the band Foxygen, who delivers an eclectic mix of elements: garage rock, Motown, soul, folk-pop and glam. She will precede Saturday night’s big headliner, a musician many Madisonians have been talking about. Alejandro Escovedo is a celebrated Mexican-American rock musician, songwriter, and singer who has as an eclectic a background and body of work as any rock artist of his generation. He has played in various rock genres, including punk rock, roots rock and alternative country, and is most closely associated with the music scene in Austin, Texas. He comes from a well-known family of musicians and has been recording and touring since the early 1990s.

Diane Coffee

“People are so excited about Alejandro Escovedo. People are really into music, he seems to be getting so much buzz,” Davey says. “We’ve actually heard from somebody from Central Illinois who’s excited about it. We are expecting a big crowd for him on Saturday night.”

Jane Lee Hooker, a band of five women from New York City who infuse the grit and attitude of their hometown into the blues, will be the highlight of Sunday at Orton Park Fest.

Beyond the great music – both local and national – the Orton Park Festival will feature a number of terrific local restaurant vendors, as well as craft beer and wine tents. There will also be kids’ games, the cake walk and the ever-popular Marquette Neighborhood Association auction.

Orton Park Festival

“It’s a small army of people that put this on every year. We try to bring back a lot of the same vendors and we really try to highlight local businesses with the food vendors and the nonprofits that come in and set up booths,” Davey says. “We have a lot of local artists with their crafts and wares. We try to give preference to neighborhood businesses because it’s all about celebrating the neighborhood. That’s what this festival has been about since the beginning. It’s really a great opportunity to show off what the east side is all about.”

As Marquette Neighborhood Association’s Waterfront Fest in June signifies to many in Madison the beginning of summer, MNA’s Orton Fest, unfortunately, signals that this is the end.

“It’s the end of summer party. As you get older, you watch your kids see this as a tradition where they just got their registration and they see their schoolmates at Orton Park and talk about teachers and classes and the upcoming school year,” Davey says. “It feels like the end of the summer, especially with this weekend forecasted to be a little bit cooler. It’s the exclamation point of the summer.”