going to be.
Yeah, Kelly Cruz is here. She is the executive director of the downtown
recene corporation and we are talking about events happening downtown. So recently, now
it's been cold, but you still have events when it was called out. For example, in March,
the same Patty's day pub crawl that was good, right? Yeah, and also the parade. The parade
had a great turnout. Yes, it was wonderful turnout, probably over 4,000 people down there.
It was good. I heard about soup and stones. Yeah, brand new events. And we sold out.
And I mean, everyone walked away extremely full. I'll tell you that much. It was a great
fun event. And I mean, I think I was trying to be selective on the soups I was trying
just because I knew I had to keep working. And I think I tried five or six and I went
home that night in a food coma. They were so good. I mean, the restaurants really pulled
out all the stops and really creative soups like Moroccan lambs stew and Chipotle cheese,
Chipotle beer cheese soup. And I mean, everything was so creative. I love beer. Oh, who doesn't
that you're talking to again. We never had a beer in his life. I like beer. Chees soup.
Yeah, it was it was fun. Well, that's a great. You had chili ice walk we talked about last
time. Yeah, that was awesome. That was big. So it's very a lot of big stuff coming up.
Now the weather's getting a little warmer. So the events start piling up now for April.
We've got down the 12th, which is this Saturday. This Saturday is the candy hop from noon
to 2 p.m. This is more of a family event. Absolutely. Yeah. This is the kids should be getting
excited here. Bring your bunny ears and your Easter baskets. And you basically get to
sort of trick or treat, but Easter style downtown it over 30 businesses are participating.
So there'll be a lot of candy. We've got a scavenger hunt for the kids as well to do,
which is everything is 100% free. And the streets are always we're going to have a face
pinner out there. I mean, it's just a fun day, right? I mean, everyone's been cooped up.
It has been cold. We just had snow on Monday having snow today. I think I looked at the
weather this morning for Saturday. I'm guessing it's going to be maybe 50s, which is going
to feel like a heat wave. And I want everybody to know the snow showers today is not my fault.
I didn't put the snow shovels away yet. They're still outside. I didn't do it. I didn't
put the the juju on this whole thing. I it's not my fault if it snows. I think it was
that last day in March, where it was, you know, 75 degrees that got us really pumped
and then just Debbie Downer came in and said, no, no, no, we're going to make you wait
another month or two. Well, I thought we're going to put the whammy on it when my wife
put the mats that melt the snow on our steps. She put them away. Don't do that. You're going
to put the whammy on it. So we're blaming it on her. That's what I'm doing. Okay. So
the candy hop is coming up this Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. And just park your car, get
the kids now. Did you bring a bag? If you if you don't have a bag, stop at the DRC office
425 Main Street. We will give you a bag, a map, a reef point brew house is giving half price
lunches for all kids. So stop in there and get your coupon for that. I know. This is helpful
Hannah over here, helping people out. That's great. Yes. We'll have everything for them. Okay,
now May May gets busy. Hopefully there's no snow showers in May. First Friday's kicks in.
This is May 2nd. This is going to be a wonderful first Friday's. I just have to say that it's
going to be a creative crawl art themed first Friday. And so we've got so many businesses that
are hosting artists doing really creative things. Window art. We're going to be doing a community
kite art. Artists, authors, sketch artists going to be out there. Really, we have such a phenomenal
art scene in downtown or seen that we don't always highlight that. Of course, the racing art
museum has been an integral part in this and artist gallery to help plan this. So we will have
like passport map where you can go to all these different places. But what a wonderful way to
kick off first Fridays. And even if it's a little chilly, you can go in in the stores and warm
up and they'll be ready for you. Last time on the first Friday, I went to the RAM and I was
walking around. I was free admission during. Yeah, I was walking around. So this place is great.
Yeah, they're going to be doing their hosting a DJ, their hosting window art. They are hosting
quite a bit to really kick off this event. Yeah, just go in there, roam around it. And you
might find that you like it. Yeah. Yeah. Who knew? You might find it in joy. So that's first
Fridays. And that'll be first Fridays for the entire into fall. Actually, we go all the way
through December. So this is really that we only take off January through April. And then every
first Friday from here on out gets bigger, better. More a theme every month. That's a little
different. So, you know, stay tuned. But we have some really fun things happening. And the best
party is when you get to Monument Square, you get to meet all these people who owe you money.
And you can run into them and say, hey, Sam, remember that money? I let you see it to meet these
people face to face. They could pay you a day. How many people do you owe money to? Or do they
owe money to you? I don't know. I don't kidding. You know, I learned something in life. My mother
told me this years ago, if you get any lend money to somebody, just give it to him as a gift. Don't
expect it back. It's a gift because if you're worried about getting paid back, it's going to ruin
the for just here's a gift. Enjoy it. And I'm never going to ask for back. And my mother, she was good
at that stuff. She took my bar mitzvah money once. I got it. It wasn't a lot of money. But I was 13
years old. And she took the money. And I to the day she passed away a couple of years ago,
I still say, what do you ever do with that? Is that still bothering you? I said, you know,
it is still bothering what you do with it. It wasn't a lot. It was like 40 bucks. And I said,
they like to know what you did with it. And she had no story. I just, she took it. I don't know why.
No, I don't know why she can't food on the table. So maybe it went to a good cause.
You know what? And I just did it to annoy her. And it really worked. She was 92 years old and I
still asked her what to do with that money you took for me. Yeah. But anyway. All right. So we got
first Friday's coming up on the second. The next day is the wine walk. Yeah. We have our wine
walks have been hugely popular. I believe we're in our, you know, six or seventh year of doing them.
I'd have to check back. But it is, we do it two weekends in a row because we just get so many
people that want to do it. And the first weekend falls in line with the Kentucky Derby. So you
get a lot of people that come with wearing hats and then, you know, the Kentucky Derby.
It looks like my fair lady out there. It's fun. And then the following weekend falls in line with
Mother's Day. So having those two weekends, you make it your own. I knew this year, which
we're really excited about is we're doing VIP tickets. So a very limited amount this first year.
But and we're about half sold out of those already. But so some of the ladies are going to
and men, sorry, are going to be walking around with VIP passes. And there's a whole thing that
goes with that. But if everything is on our website, you get that I get if you're on the website.
Yeah, there's yeah, you can just go to our website and learn more about those tickets and what
what all is included. But yeah, it's 30 different stops for everybody in general admission. Um,
so you really get to explore downtown. You really get to shop. Uh, every place has snacks
along the way. It's fun. I mean, people out there have a good time. I don't know when it
where it was or somewhere downtown, some organization had the Derby day, the day of the Kentucky Derby.
And I went in there and all these women wearing the, yeah, I think it was the Johnson building
on the corner, you know, we're. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, I'll say it's foundation might have
used to do a host of big gala and fundraiser there for that. But a lot of people just come
downtown and then, um, I think the Derby's at five o'clock in the one walk is from one to six.
So it falls right in line. So get your hat. You can get your hat at Dimple's imports too. They
have more Derby hats than you would ever imagine. Yeah, looks like, you don't know if you don't know
where to get a Derby hat for both men and women, Dimple's imports has an entire wall full of fun ones.
And the guys have to wear the ass gots with the. Yeah, one of those ones called the top hats.
No, but the women, one of those ones called that they all the yes, I know what that is. That's
something aator. Um, this is trivia for the day. Oh, don't say anything. Hold on. It's right in the
tip of my head here. Let me back the back of my head here. Slap it. Uh, fascinating. Fascinator.
That's it. It's the fascinating. That's Kelly one down zero. No, I said, I gave you a head. It's
something aator. I couldn't think of it as a fascinating. I got you going on. Kelly Cruz,
executive director of the downtown received corporation with me. We're talking about all the events
coming to downtown. You have any new stores to talk about? Oh my gosh, arrow smoothies just opened
up. Yes, two days ago. Like the way I got you going on at this. Yeah, yeah. That was exciting,
especially exciting because it's right across the street for my office. And they do like the
assiables and all fresh fruit smoothies. Everything is healthy. They don't add sugar to anything.
If there is sweetness, it's all just flash or fresh frozen frozen fruit and honey. Um, and it's,
it's going to be great. Remember that sign fell episode with the yogurt that was supposed to be fat
and everybody was eating all they can. And everybody's looking at their stomachs and all of us
fat. I don't remember that. It turns out there was fat in it. Everybody's new men's eating all
they can. He's getting fatter because he said it was fat. It wasn't. So where is the smoothie
plate? What's it called? First of all, arrow smoothies. And where is it located exactly?
I know what your office is. Yes, it's right next to orgy natural babies. So I don't know. It's
on the 400 block of Maine. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so just a really great young entrepreneur. And
if you love smoothies, you love assiables. Um, assi? Oh, it's, uh, it's a, it's a frozen assi
berry. It tastes a lot like ice cream, but the way they make it, it's actually just blended up
assi berries and it looks like a purple ice cream. And then on top of it, you put bananas and granola
and fresh fruit. And it's like, it's like dessert for breakfast, but it's healthy for you.
You're talking about a guy who never leaves the house and watches date line reruns all day. So
so when you say these things, that's why I don't know about them. I think a lot of people
are really excited because, um, Abrazo closed last year and that was the one place to get smoothies.
So are smoothie place? Well, there's one place on six street too, um, to get smoothies too. So
all right, smoothies for breakfast. I'd like it already because I'm hungry. Uh, let's say we
got to your first Friday's wine walk and another one walks coming up the following weekend there
on the step. Now what is this spring feast on the streets? Oh, I'm seeing hungry. So all this
sounds really good. We always love talking about food. Yeah, this is for all the foodies out there.
So basically, it's a Friday night, May 23rd, you get to sample 10 different downtown restaurants
all in one night. So and we're talking not just, you know, not just a little plate. These
are like decent size samplings of everything from we'll have Mexican, Irish, Italian, American,
and everything in between. So we're going to be announcing that menu very soon,
but those tickets do sell out as well because everybody loves food. Um, and so it's basically
yeah, it's rather than going out for your typical Friday night fish fry since you by then,
maybe you're sick of it after, you know, all of these lent days, lent Fridays. Um, this,
this is just a great event to go down and, um, and splurge and, and just taste all of our wonderful
restaurants because we have so many good ones. That's on May 23rd. And, um, what's American food?
And you think a lot like sliders. So peppies did wonderful. I'm just saying because most American
food is from other countries. We just call them. We had sliders and meatballs with meatballs,
but they're more like a, I guess those can be Italian. They're American meatballs.
We had wings in those concerns. So you got three different flavored wings, but then they were like
tie wings. And I know it's tough to come up with American food. We got to steal from everybody.
Yeah. Well, we've pointed out. So it's a really great platter of like smoky barbecue brisket.
I'll get barbecue. All right. That's a good type of things. So you could, they never
disappointed on French bread. No, no, no. That's going to be fun. And then, I mean,
we're jam-packed in May. And then in May, we kick off Haymarket, May 29th.
That's a birthday area for me there. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So the Haymarket is us sort of taking the
Racine Harbor market that we we've had the last couple years, three years now. And it's now
Haymarket. We've renamed it your original name. We rebranded it. We rebranded it back to
the original name of Monument Square, which is Haymarket. And we've got a phenomenal acoustic
music lineup. So every time you're there, you're going to hear a great acoustic band or unplugged band.
And food trucks, we have so many cool vendors.
When did food trucks become the hottest thing? Everybody's having food truck events now.
It's crazy. But we're going to have lots of food trucks down there,
beer garden. And then, of course, your typical farmer's market produce and flowers and honey,
because I know you love your honey. No, my wife, local honey. So we'll have all those things.
She said, that's what keeps you from getting sick because the local honey's, the honey bees have the
antia, whatever the things are that, you know, they and they keep you from getting sick because
it's all in the honey. Okay. Because that's why you want local honey. Well, you can stock up
starting on May 29th. Yeah, I got my dealer. He goes down. Yeah. So it's it's a night. It's a
night market. So it's every other Thursday in the summer from four to seven pm. So it's sort of
a cool vibe. It's different than your Saturday morning type market because we know like I said,
we have if you go, if you go online, you can actually see old pictures and the 1800s of people
bringing their hay for sale at the area. Yeah, I told you my whole story. Yes, I put the hay
in the street by accident as a whole big store out those some other time on the air. But yeah,
so that's so I'm talking May is one, two, three, four, five. We have five big events in May.
All right. Hang in there just a few more minutes because we got some more minutes. We want to talk
about the beginning of the summer. That's nice to talk about the beginning of the summer.
Kelly Cruz is here reminiscing crying about the good old days. She's a decade
director of the downtown receiving corporation. Would you grow up, by the way?
Would I grow up? Whitefish Montana. Oh, y'all Montana. Yeah, the first person I've
ever met from Montana. I remember I took a Amtrak train once. Goes right through Whitefish.
And yeah, it went right through there. We didn't I got off at the Mall of America, but
it was the people who were on the train with us. We had dinner with on the Amtrak train. We're
going to Whitefish Montana. Yeah, it's right. I mean, it stops right into the downtown. So my
my parents had a downtown shop. So I've been in downtown my whole life, but just probably five
buildings into the downtown from the Amtrak. It was less than a block from the stop. Yeah.
Winters here probably are nothing compared to what you had in Montana. I mean, there's
somewhat similar. They're really not too different. There's snow and it's cold. Does everybody know
what everybody in Montana? At least in Montana. Everybody's like skiing and enjoying the winter. We're
here. We just sort of bundled up a good play. Grumble about it. So there's everybody in the entire
state. No, everybody. Well, it's such a big state. It's so huge. Anytime you want to go anywhere,
it's like a three hour drive. The guy who used to own this radio station back in the early 90s,
the guy who hired me here, he owned a station in Montana. I forget where it was, but he owned one of
the stations is in Montana. I said, really all the way up there. Wow. All right. Well, I didn't know
you from Montana. Well, there you go. This is what Montana people look like. It looked pretty normal.
I think normal. Okay. We're talking about some events coming to the downtown routine corporation.
We got it right through May. And let's talk about the summer bash. I know it's hard to believe with
snow showers in the forecast, but the summer bash is coming up on June 6th. This is when first
Friday really just becomes a summer type event. You know, my name is Grille. We'll be rocking
with the band and a DJ free hot dogs. We'll have ice cream vendors. We'll be doing a ton of activities
for the kids. It's really just we call it our summer kickoff party because as you can see from
our event calendar, once June hits, we've got about, you know, 14 events per week or per month.
So it gets pretty busy. So nobody in your office can take a vacation during these events.
Well, we probably not know. Don't don't give them ideas done. Wow. There's a lot of stuff.
And you don't have a huge staff. No. So that's not the best time for vacation.
So yeah, first Fridays. And then you got something coming up. It's on the same line by the way
if you notice. Yeah, but it's the same thing. The mini golf pub crawl. This is like putt putt
golf to have the thing, right? Yeah. And it's really not a pub crawl anymore. It's actually kind of
it's grown in popularity. So it's actually just a mini golf crawl where every business
sets up their own mini golf hole. And everyone is unique. So you basically walk around downtown
and you put putt mini golf. And you can have a two-some or four-some at the end of it. We've got
huge, you know, prizes for best dressed, worst score, best score, hole-in-ones.
But it's it's so funny because these people really dress up for the occasion. I mean,
I'm talking their best golf gear. Was it that Tamashan hat that you were with the
with the plan? Yes, the plan. It's really like a cool event. So it's not just at bars at all. In
fact, it's about half retail stores and and then half bars. That's a try that because I'm
good at putt putt golf. Yeah, it's just you get your four-some together or your two-some and golf.
I don't know. Who doesn't love what mini golf? Well, yeah, that I could do. It's the real golf
that I can't do. Yeah, there's no real golf. Putt putt putt. I can. Yeah. You remember the
windmill hole they used to have? Yes. And the last I was always the last hole. Yeah, and well,
the windmill hole and then you hit the I would hit the windmill thing and bounce back at you.
Finally, you take the way I throw it. Yeah, yeah. It is always one person that couldn't get it
through there. The businesses have gotten so creative every year with their mini golf hole. I
mean, sometimes you've got to go through it. It's pretty crazy. You'd have to see it. There's
tires involved, kegs, all of these different. Everyone is so interesting. That's what makes it
really fun. And by the way, everything we're talking about this morning is available on the DRC
website, which is downtown Racine. Actually, it's Racine downtown dot com. Racine. That's
why you're here. Racine downtown dot com. And you'll look for the events calendar on there. Yeah,
yeah. And you'll see everything on there. It's very, then you can go to the one that explains
it even more is that you have a detailed explanation of it. Yes. Yes.
Huskete, the institution here, the hay market is four to seven PM. That's on the 12th.
Yep. So we'll continue with our our hay market, which again is sort of a glorified
farmer's market. That's sort of a hay market farmer's market. That's rocking, right? It's a
night market. So you've got just a lot of fun pre-packaged food, food trucks, flowers, honeyve,
produce, acoustic bands, beer garden. It's just a cool event. Fun. Then we have two other events
coming at one is Harbor Fest, which is coming back. Yes. We're very excited. Kevin, the Google
from five K events is going to be in here talking about. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So they've got some
really great festivals coming back at festival hall. So we always like to kind of include those.
But the Harbor Fest, June 13th and 14th, they've got some really great bands, including
Bella Cain scheduled for that. And we're just excited that we had some people that actually
a group of community activists that brought this back. All of the proceeds are going back to
local non-profits, which I think is also really cool. And we're just going to bring back the
good old days of Harbor Fest. And the lighthouse run is every year. They have lighthouse run on
the around the 14th of June. It's on the 14th flag day of this year. And I participate every single
year in the lighthouse run. I'm in front of my house. I bring that little bell. I have some water
I give to people. I participate every year. Yeah. We love the lighthouse run. We're so excited
that that has continued to be a tradition. And in race scene, obviously, it goes through downtown
or seen all the way down to the lighthouse in Caledonia. And in one point and just a wonderful event.
We sent up a hose. I hook it up to a ladder. And I turn it on mist. So when people come by my house,
it's toward the end of the race. I just ran about eight miles. And so I have the mist
over in the street and they run underneath the mist. And so I do that every year. That's how I
participate. I don't run because I get to do the mist. Let's see. But then we have another
hay market on the 28th and the 20s. That's at 26th rather on the 27th music on the market.
We started our massive live music concert series for the summer beginning at the end of June
just to make sure it's a little warmer for those musicians because if it's cold out,
it's really hard to play guitar drum. So we'll start June 27th with music on the monument. Those
are 43730. So it's a great time to come after work and then stay downtown for dinner.
And then we kick it off right away with Saturday sound. So basically this summer, every single
Friday and Saturday, we have a different local band, a huge variety of music as well from
blues to jazz to country to punk to everything in between. They still call it punk music.
It's we've got one rule. And we even have an all girls band this year.
The band is kind of like a rock punk punk. Yeah, maybe it's that. We have rock to classic rock.
I mean, we really try to do a variety of music. And so it's for we'll be posting that band
schedule probably with thin by the end of the week. Well, girl band like the bangles.
We were excited to find an all girl band's girl power, right? Yeah, all right. Yeah. So so June
is just jam packed. There's got to be something for everybody to come downtown in June.
Just like the Broadway musical says on carousel. June is busted out all over. All right,
so this sounds like a lot of events just get you through the first half of the year.
And next time you come in, we'll start with July. Yes. And as a boy, it just keeps piling up.
It really does. I don't know how you put this all together. It's going to be fun. We've
got to take advantage of our summers. And you're always looking for sponsors as well, right?
Yeah. And we are so happy that WRJ has been a major sponsor for all of our events this year.
And we love that partnership. And but of course, always looking for great sponsors.
How do they do that? Somebody else wants to be a sponsor? How do they on the website?
Yeah, right on our website, we have all the opportunities available or reach out to me directly
or messages on, on, on our social medias. We are, we're on, on all of them.
Sounds great. I was going to have a new year. Thank you so much for having me.
Smoothies, then where are the smoothies again?
It's, I think it's from the 400 block of Main Street.
All right, by the way, our next RG Natural Bay.
And Anna Saibuls. I never heard of that.
Yeah, no, that's because I told you I hibernate in my house, so I don't get out much.
You got to try them out. I got to get out of my house. Thank you, Kelly.
Kelly Cruz, Executive Director of the downtown Racine Corporation.
Everything we talked about is at RacineDowntown.com.
I'm never quite sure. RacineDowntown.com. Just go to the calendar of events.
And there's also a bigger explanation of it. Once you see the calendar, you can
get more explanation of what's going on. That's great.
Yeah, come on down this Saturday. Bring the family. Bring the kiddos and give them the sugar
high that they've put in craving. I'm sure. And get them, you know, get your steps in.
It'll be a fun weekend. Neil Damant said pack up the babies and grab the old ladies.
Everyone goes. Everyone knows the downtown Racine.
I could Kelly, Kelly Cruz, downtown Racine Corporation.
