🌈 August Is Pride Month in Madison
The local LGBTQ+ nonprofit OutReach will hold its annual Magic Pride Festival on Aug.16 at Warner Park. You can expect drag performances, rainbow swag, and tons of vendors. Plus, we’ll have a tent so come say hi and grab a sticker!
🤣 Laugh For a Week Straight
Madison Comedy Week is Aug. 3 through Aug. 8. There will be more than 25 shows across nine venues featuring local and touring comedians, and all ticket prices are $15 (plus fees) or less. It’s a great way to see all the comedy gold the city has to offer.
🍻 Pregame the Great Taste of the Midwest
I’ve never been motivated enough to snag tickets to the Great Taste of the Midwest, but it’s a big deal. Tickets for the Aug. 8 event are long sold out, but don’t fret because several local spots are hosting Great Taste Eve parties on Aug. 7. There are seriously so many parties that I’m not going to even try to list them!
👂 A Bouquet For Your Ears
Olbrich Botanical Garden will undergo a sonic transformation for the NeuroArts Festival on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. The installation is curated by composer JG Everest and organized by the community curation project LAB^4 at Arts + Literature Laboratory. Small speakers will be placed throughout the garden, each playing a different portion of the same song while musicians from the Free Range Orchestra roam through the garden and play along. This is a free event, though there are a few workshops that require registration.
Dogstar, featuring Keanu Reeves on bass, plays The Sylvee on Aug. 29. (Q Prime Management)
🎸 Whoa! Keanu’s Coming to Madison?
When he’s not dispatching bad guys as John Wick or traveling through time as one-half of Bill & Ted, Keanu Reeves plays bass with his band Dogstar. Dogstar is coming to Madison to play The Sylvee on Aug. 29, with The Backfires opening.
🎶 Keep the Festivals Going
Summers in Madison are full of neighborhood festivals and the fun continues into August. This weekend is the bluegrass-centered Sugar Maple Fest at Lake Farm County Park. The weekend of Aug. 15 is a busy one with Eken Park Fest on Saturday, Africa Fest on Saturday and Sunday, and Magic Pride on Sunday. If you love corn, the annual Sun Prairie Corn Festival runs Aug. 19 through Aug. 23. And the month wraps up with the Orton Park Festival on Aug. 28-30.
🏳️🌈 ‘Trevor’ is Forever
“Trevor: The Musical” is an LGBTQ+-themed musical about Trevor Nelson, navigating life at a suburban high school in 1981 while dreaming of a life in showbiz. Music Theatre of Madison is putting on the Wisconsin premiere of the play from Aug. 14-22 in the Overture Center Playhouse, MTM’s first-ever Overture show in its 20 years.
💟 Stay Informed
For even more events, you can always keep up with what’s going on in Madison with our events calendar. (If you’re a Neighbor, you get a special events newsletter every week!)
