Back in 2015, Alder Barbara Harrington-McKinney wanted to have a fun-filled, intergenerational summer festival to showcase the diversity of Madison’s southwest side. With that idea in mind “Westfest” was born.
The goal was to build community pride with the collaboration and support of partner agencies, organizations, businesses, homeowners and neighborhood associations on the west side. The COVID pandemic put an end to a string of four successful Westfest events in 2020, but the event is back this year and ready to relaunch on Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at Elver Park.
Harrington-McKinney remembered how the Fourth of July fireworks at Elver Park had ended due to the loss of financial sponsorships and something was needed on the West Side of Madison to build community and to highlight the beautiful diversity and cultures of west side neighborhoods.
“When the fireworks ended at Elver Park, that’s when the thought to host Westfest came about because there were festivals in other parts of the city that were doing really well,” says Harrington-McKinney, who first became alder in April 2015 and was one of the two first African American women elected to the Common Council. “Elver Park is such a beautiful park. It’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest park in Madison, too. It’s a great place to host an event.”
For four years, WestFest was celebrated at Elver Park. Each year, they continued to build WestFest at Elver Park as an annual summer festival: a fun-filled, intergenerational summer event with family fun, food, rides, games, cultural presentations and lively entertainment highlighting the diversity of the westside neighborhoods.
“During the last Westfest that we did, Sheray Wallace organized a community march, a violence prevention march, and we had such great diversity,” Harrington-McKinney. “It’s amazing all of the cultures that we have on the southwest side — cultures I didn’t even know existed. So I’m excited about Westfest.
“The goal of the event is to bring people together … and how do you bring people together — music, food, fun!”
Harrington-McKinney says that she knows that people “tend to focus on some of the negative things that they hear and read about Madison’s southwest side,” but she wants people to know that there are so many positive things happening in that area, too.
The event is being hosted in partnership with the Urban League of Greater Madison’s Fatherhood Program, the Elver Park Neighborhood Center and representatives from local neighborhood associations.
“I think Westfest is a great chance for people to come together from diverse backgrounds and realize that they have a lot in common and have a lot of the same values,” Harrington-McKinney says. “And we do it through the children. Children are amazing and when they come together, they are laughing together and enjoying themselves together and they set the model and the example for the rest of us.”
Westfest will feature music by DJ Buck, food carts, a dunk tank, a bounce house, face painting, hot dogs, brats, ice cream and more.
“We’re back! And it’s so exciting. One of our goals for this event is to reintroduce Westfest at Elver Park so that it can be the springboard to something even bigger and better in 2024 … like we did before the pandemic with performances, the stage, music, and with all of those things that made it a full-fledged festival,” Harrington-McKinney says.
For more information about Westfest, e-mail [email protected] or call (608) 228-8683.
