Veterans Day is Nov. 11, and Madisonians are finding all kinds of personal and innovative ways to honor those who have served. For years, Madison’s longtime Irish rock band The Kissers has been involved in a project to use music to honor the soldiers of World War I.
On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talks to Kissers frontman Ken Fitzsimmons on how that project has evolved into a new multimedia “rock ‘n’ roll history concert,” “The Foe & The Fallen,” that will premiere on Veterans Day at the Barrymore Theatre.
Here are some more things to do in honor of Veterans Day around Madison, as well as the surprising reasons why Wisconsin does not recognize it as a state holiday.
😦 What Do You Mean, Veterans Day Isn’t a State Holiday?
That’s right, while Veterans Day is a federal holiday, Wisconsin is the only U.S. state that does not also recognize it as a state holiday. That means state employees do not get the day off, and schools are open.
The reasons behind that are complicated. Wisconsin had always been a strong supporter of Armistice Day, the worldwide occasion that celebrated the end of World War I. In the 1950s, the U.S. government renamed Armistice Day as Veterans Day to honor Americans who served in all wars. But Wisconsin stuck to observing Armistice Day, and while there were some efforts in the 1980s to add Veterans Day as a state holiday in Wisconsin, it did not gather enough support to pass.
Those efforts have resurfaced in recent years. In 2022 the Wisconsin Senate passed a bill to make Veterans Day a state holiday, but it has not come up for a vote in the Assembly. In his 2025-26 budget, Gov. Tony Evers included a provision that would make both Veterans Day and Juneteenth state holidays, but it was removed by the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee.
Last month, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced “The Veterans Promise,” which would align Wisconsin with the U.S. government’s observance of Veterans Day.
🫡 What’s Happening This Veterans Day
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum will celebrate the semiquincentennial of the Marine Corps in the Capitol Rotunda at noon on Nov. 10 (today). The free event will include music, a cake-cutting, and remarks by state officials.
Come back to the Capitol on Nov. 11 for the official Veterans Day observance, beginning at 9:15 a.m. with a pre-event concert by the VFW 1318 band. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. with a presenting of the colors by Sons of the American Revolution, remarks by Gov. Tony Evers and others, a rifle salute, and the performance of patriotic songs.
It’s the centennial for the groundbreaking of the UW-Madison Memorial Union, and the Union and University Veteran Services will celebrate at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 with speakers, refreshments, a performance by the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, and a selection from the Badger Veterans Photo Project. Pick up a reimagined centennial “W” pin, inspired by the one given to graduates in 1907.
Armistice Day is expressly considered an antiwar holiday, and Madison Veterans for Peace will honor that aspect of it with a panel discussion featuring antiwar veterans from Wisconsin on Nov. 19 at the UW-Madison Memorial Union.
