All right, let's talk about some fun coming up this holiday season to receive at Festival
Hall, Festival Park, Memorial Hall, Main Street, Monuments for Everything, and it got a great
city here.
We do.
We don't just sit around on a laurels all day.
At least I do.
I sit around on my laurels, but the people who have to put it together, like you, don't sit
around on your laurels all day long, which would explain who our guest is today.
Well, we have Don Carrillo, well, first of all, Kevin McDougall is here for me.
I didn't want to do so myself.
Kevin McDougall from 5K Events is here, comes in every month to talk about what's going
on in the receive.
Now we introduce our special guest star.
Yeah, we have a great guest here today.
Something we're really excited about.
It's the big announcement today.
Don Carrillo, who is our partner with the Racine Farmers Market on the Lake, which will be
happening next year, starting in May, every Saturday from 9 to 1.
So something that we're extremely excited about, and Don can tell you her story.
But we had this great opportunity to do something that we've been wanting to do since
we took over at Racine Civic Center, and we just didn't know how to do it.
We didn't know what we didn't know.
So we're great.
We had the great opportunity to work with someone like Don who knows the business and has
the connections to help us put this together.
I'm going to break that down.
I don't know what I don't know.
I can say a lot because it's a lot of thing I don't know.
When I boss your Chris says to me, something is said, well, I don't know what I don't
know.
It gets me off those a lot.
Yeah, that's good.
Well, welcome Don.
Good morning.
And where's it going to be?
Where's the farmer's market physically going to be now?
It's going to be inside Festival Park.
Okay, inside the hall?
No, in the park.
Oh, in the park.
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, where you do the outside.
Outside.
Yes.
Okay.
Good.
Okay.
That's $1.65 vendors for our new farmer's market in that incredible location overlooking
the water.
So what, the local farmers are going to bring their stuff in?
That's what we hope.
I hope to have at least 20% be just produce farmers.
Wow.
Give me the dates and the times and all that stuff again, because people are going to be
calling me.
I didn't hear what you said.
What was the date in the time?
So yes.
Oh, go ahead.
The opening day is May 9th of 2026.
So that's a Saturday, and it'll run through.
I don't have the exact date, but it'll run through the final Saturday of October in
2026.
So what's that?
24 weeks?
October 24th?
Yeah.
For 24 weeks.
Well, I can tell you who's going to be with my wife.
She goes to all the farmer's markets.
Yeah.
I don't need vegetables.
I'm not a bit, but she is.
She's huge on vegetables.
Yeah.
I mean, I'll eat peppers and stuff like that.
Light is sure.
But when it gets to the heavy duty stuff, like tomatoes and all that kind of stuff, not
into it.
No.
You know, a quick story.
My dad, my mother once put peas on my place.
I'm a little kid, like nine years old, eight years old, put peas on my plate at dinner time
by mistake.
And she said, let me take that off my father's and no, he's going to eat them.
I said, Dad, I can't eat them.
I can't hold them down.
He said, well, they're not leaving the table.
They went down to the rec room.
Watch two hours of TV came back.
I was sitting at the table.
He said, go to bed.
I'm not being rebellious.
I will not hold it down.
So if I eat them, those peas and my mother just said, I'm so sorry, I didn't need to put
them on your plate.
Got it.
That one.
Yeah.
Fresh local produce, especially growing locally, tastes completely different.
So I'm a little older now.
So hopefully, but I still haven't eaten peas if they're in vegetable soup, I'll eat them.
Okay.
But I won't eat a plate of them.
No.
I mean, my parents tried.
They get chased around with the fork.
You know, they tried all around.
They tried all sorts of things, handcuffs locking me up, tying me up for the way they
tried.
I wouldn't eat them.
No, they never did anything like that.
Okay.
So this is real big news now.
This is the first time ever here, right?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
We've been working on this for about six weeks or so, but yeah, this is the big announcement
of it.
We've been kind of hanging on to it until we got everything in place and all the dates.
And we've already had conversations with a number of the vendors and they're excited.
So that translates into what's going to be a great event.
Not only for us at the park, but, you know, downtown Racine as a whole, as you know,
and Don can speak to is a food desert.
So there's a lot of folks that live downtown that don't have ready access to fresh fruits,
vegetables, things like that.
So that's something we're looking to remedy.
And you also want a local farmer to get involved.
Absolutely.
How do they do it?
They can visit RacineFarbersMarket.com and find my connection and contact me.
We'll start applications in the first of January, but talking to especially local farmers
that maybe aren't at markets too, we'd love to invite them over.
Think about this.
The food you're going to be selling has it, it's not even grown yet.
The seeds aren't even in the ground for it yet.
Yeah, a lot of it.
Yet you're going to be grown.
You're going to be selling it.
And it's not even, it doesn't exist.
It doesn't exist.
That's a kind of a fun moment.
It's out of that.
Well, that's exciting news.
It is exciting.
Yeah, we also got some other big exciting news coming up at just a moment.
We're talking to Kevin McDougall from 5K Events and Don Carillo, who's going to be handling
the farmers market into this.
That's really good.
Yeah.
I mean, I won't say that I don't eat all vegetables, but I eat some, but I'm real picky
at it.
But my wife eats everything.
At church, they have one of the benches in the vestibule area.
They'll bring it all their vegetables.
They grew in their garden.
It's like a farmer's market everywhere.
I'll take this, this, this, this.
I didn't even know what that is.
Yeah.
You can eat it.
But yeah, this is good.
You cut it up, you fry it.
It's really good.
I do like something.
So I might be stopping by and checking it out.
It's going to be an amazing community thing.
So we're talking with Kevin McDougall from 5K Events.
He brought a special guest star, Don Carillo, who is also with us today.
And I'm saying that right.
Yes.
Okay.
I just want to make sure.
I don't want you getting angry at me.
Or ask me if you pronounce my name.
I don't care.
I don't care if you're mad at me.
I care if she's mad at me.
He's got a cooler hat than I do.
Yeah.
She does have a cool hat.
It's got that, uh, any home look on that hat.
I like it.
Man.
Okay.
Uh, now one of the big events coming up.
St. Nick's festival of trees.
Now this has been gone from festival hall for how long?
10 years.
It's been the first time in 10 years that we've done a festival
of trees.
Make you bring it back.
You know, it was one of the events that when 5K events, uh, assumed stewardship of
their scene civic center, there was a handful of events that we had targeted that we wanted
to revive and bring back.
This was one of them.
There's only one on the list that we haven't gotten yet.
And we're going to get it.
But festival of trees was at the top of the list that we wanted to revive.
We tried to do it last year.
Really couldn't pull it together in time, but we are a full throttle going forward with
this now.
Full throttle.
Like that.
Full throttle.
Going ahead with Christmas trees.
That's the Harley rider.
Now you have got a huge set up here of things that happen during the whole festival
of trees.
Let's run through some of them here.
Yeah.
You know, we've got over 30 local businesses and organizations that have sponsored trees
and reeds and it's growing every day.
So I expect we'll probably end up in the neighborhood of 40 plus trees and reeds that people
can come see and, you know, try to, you know, buy raffle tickets to win and take them home.
But yeah, in and amongst the from November 22nd through December 6th, we've just got a
great lineup of daily events that are happening for the public to come and enjoy and see the
trees and have a little holiday fun.
Okay.
Let's go through the list here.
I got a preview party coming up on November 21st.
Yeah.
The preview party is it's for our sponsors and the vendors that have committed to be a part
of the event.
So that's that Friday night.
And you know, that is again, it's, it's not really open to the public.
But it is for our vendors.
So if an of you are listening, make sure you RSVP to me, Kevin at festivalpark.com.
But yeah.
Then the following day, the 22nd is the opening day before gates, yeah, we hope that
you know, folks can really come in and start to see the trees and one of the mechanisms
that we'll have during festival trees is we'll be selling raffle tickets and people see
the individual trees.
There's ones that they like ones that they would like to take home, drop the ticket in
the bucket.
And then on December 7th, we'll be doing the drawing for people to win the trees.
We'll pack the tree up and really all they got to do is come, is come pick it up.
So then each individual sponsor of the trees, the dollars that are generated by their tree,
they get to choose the charity that they want to donate to.
Yeah.
So we thought it'd be a little easier to do it that way as opposed to, you know, choosing
one overarching charity, we thought each one of the sponsors could work with someone
that's, you know, close to them, something that's important to them to direct those charitable
dollars too.
What's kids Christmas bingo?
Yeah.
It's really just what it sounds like.
It's presented by VFW Post 1391 and the kids come in and just play a special round
of Christmas bingo to win some prizes and just have some general, general kid oriented
fun.
Jitter bugging.
Yeah.
That's something that we've been wanting to do, kind of a big band thing.
It'll be Monday, November 24th, where we're just inviting folks to come in and enjoy
the music of the era and try your hand at some Jitter bug dancing.
Now Rosebud, B-U-D-S.
It's an acronym.
What is it for?
Yeah.
You know, I was going to try and find out with that stuff before I don't know.
So I'm not even going to, you know, try to fake my way through it.
But what it is is it's a father-daughter dance.
So there, that's another event that took place during Festival of Trees that we wanted
to bring back that we'd hear anecdotally that people had great memories of.
So this is a father-daughter dance.
It is ticketed and for the tickets for any of these events, go to festivalpark.com and
then hit the upcoming events icon and then go to the Festival of Trees entry.
Okay.
November 26th, you're prepping for the big Thanksgiving Racine Day.
Yeah.
This is something that I think this is the 15th year that that has happened at Festival
Hall.
And it is something that, you know, the entire public is invited to.
You know, people that, you know, maybe you're disadvantaged.
It's not just for them, which, you know, it does focus on that.
But, you know, say if, you know, your family is out of town, maybe you're new to the
area.
You don't really have a place to spend Thanksgiving.
This is someplace where you can, you know, come and enjoy some, some of the community.
Okay.
That is Black Friday.
You've got the festive holidays.
Yeah.
That is a night of a stand-up comedy, which we're excited about.
We've got a great lineup, headlined by Chastity Washington, who is a, she's actually,
I don't think she's teaching anymore, but she had been a Milwaukee teacher and she broke
out and dovetailed into comedy and is, is tremendous.
So we're excited to, to work with Chastity and her lineup for that event.
The media says I took my eight kids, Christmas shopping, where we got to the stories, it's
spread out.
They can't watch all of us.
It's something like that.
Brunch with Santa.
Oh my goodness gracious.
Yeah.
That's Saturday and November 29th.
That's right.
Yeah.
And it's inside festival hall and amongst stuff festival trees and it's, it's really just
what it sounds like.
Have brunch.
Santa will, you know, go around and talk to all the kids and hear what they want for
Christmas.
And so we're, we're looking forward to that and then also coincides with our leftover
5K run that we have 5K events has done every year on Thanksgiving weekend.
The leftover 5K November 30th Arts and Crafts Day.
This is all going on at the festival of a trees by the way.
Yeah, this is during festival trees.
So these are events that are happening to, you know, it's more than just coming down
to see the trees, which of course are going to be amazing, but different events that
are happening within the festival trees daily events.
So, but yeah, the Arts and Crafts Day, lots of local vendors and artisans will be set
up with a lot of their holiday oriented works.
One of the comedians said, my mother, every time we have Christmas, saves all the bows
and ribbons.
Yeah.
Just waiting for that big Russian embargo of those ribbons, she's all set.
Yeah.
A holiday feast coming up on December 1th.
Yeah, this is going to be a great night Monday, December 1st.
It is a catered meal that's going to be presented by Old Madrid.
So anybody that has eaten that Old Madrid on 6th Street is, it is one of our amazing restaurants
here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They do great pae and topus.
So what they're going to do is a kind of a topus feast focused on different countries
of South America paired with some really fine wines.
So this is something that's going to be really amazing.
And if you've ever, again, if you've ever eaten at Old Madrid, you know what you're going
to get when you come.
Yeah.
So it's going to be top notch.
SC Johnson Days coming up on December 2th.
Yeah.
That's a day where we're inviting SC Johnson employees to come for their annual holiday
staff lunch.
So that's something that is really just open to SC Johnson employees, which is a great
number of folks in the community.
And they get in with one can of raid or glade, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
What they got at the employee store.
Yeah.
Right.
I still have stuff.
We, Dick Ricef used to work at the SC Johnson.
He's our sports announcer for high school football, he used to work there and he got
me all these cans of room freshener.
It smell like cookies and everything.
Yeah.
Like six cans.
I still have them from like a decade ago.
But they do smell good.
I think I got some of the employees through that.
Deck the hall on December 3th.
Yeah.
This is a great night where anybody that has, you know, fond memories of festival trees
might remember when, you know, whether they themselves or their kids or their grandkids
saying it festival of trees.
So this night, the case in park carolers will be performing at, at festival hall during
festival trees.
And on the fourth, we have Christmas magic.
Yeah.
Magic show presented by the La Booth brothers.
If you've ever seen them, they are tremendous, they're going to, they're going to blow your
mind.
A lot of close up magic that is really incredible.
So that's Thursday, December 4th.
And we have a Christmas wine tasting event on December 5th.
Yeah.
This is what the Caledonian Conservancy and this is our second year doing this event
to this also a ticket event.
So it is a wine and beer tasting that is presented by the folks from the Caledonian Conservancy.
And finally, we wrap it up with St. Nicholas Day on December 6th.
Yeah.
St. Nicholas Day.
It's a traditional day where, you know, kids receive, you know, small, small gifts from
St. Nicholas.
A lot of it is that they get like an orange in their shoe and some chocolates and things
like that.
And so it's really just, you know, kind of a fun thing to wrap up festival trees.
And we still have these events coming up, right?
Yes.
The last three there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Turkey Trot and then Caledonian Conservancy is there.
And then Racine Symphony is going to be at Memorial Hall in December 5th.
So that's something that, you know, we're really excited about as well.
That will be the return of the Racine Symphony.
Ninety years ago, I had a host, the Racine Symphony concert.
Yeah.
Because Greg Berg was, he could make it today, if I would do it.
So I got my talk seat while in my host of the concert.
And information, the orchestra was told not to leave the stage.
And there was a young woman in the audience.
I brought up on stage, got down on one knee and proposed in front of everybody.
She was shaking because she didn't know what was going to happen.
Luckily she was nice.
She was a nice, beautiful dress on and the hall was a festival hall.
Place was packed.
I gave him the ring and November 4th.
We celebrated 19 years.
Good for you.
And I was.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
I was all at that time.
That's fun stuff.
We're excited to have the Racine Symphony back at Memorial Hall, where they belong.
So.
Okay.
Let's recap here for people just waking up and tuning in.
Don Carrillo is here and she is going to be involved in the farmers market.
It's not today.
It's starting in May.
So let's talk about that again for people just getting up.
Yeah.
We're going to be downtown, starting a new Racine farmers market on the lake for 24 weeks,
starting in May.
Specializing in fresh produce and fresh made foods all locally grown and made.
And we're really excited that the space is incredible and we hope to have over 60 vendors
every Saturday.
And this is outside right in the back on right in the lake front, like music, children
programming, all the things that are a great farmers marketable.
Oh wow.
But we didn't talk about that in the first part.
We didn't mention the music in the games and stuff.
Little something for everybody.
Yeah.
Great destination market.
Yeah.
So let's start in May in May.
Yes, Mother's Day.
Mother's Day begins.
Mother's Day.
All right.
And obviously we can't sell it now because the food has been grown yet.
The seeds aren't even in the ground yet, but they will be eventually taking reservations.
And we have some great, great farms around here.
You don't see them in the city, but once you get out of the county, you see all this
farmland out there.
I've seen Kenosha, Milwaukee County, it's amazing.
We have a little stand we buy out, which now we'll go to the farmers market, both a little
stand.
And we buy their corn.
It is the most delicious corn you have ever.
It's sweet corn.
And I don't know.
It's not the same as buying it at the supermarket for some reason.
You buy it fresh from the stands and it's just, it's really good stuff.
Yeah.
And I love that.
It's not quite my little space in my tooth there, but I love eating it.
That's pretty good.
And finally we got the festival trees kicking off.
Festival trees kicks off November 22nd and runs through December 6th.
So that's something that, you know, we are very excited about something we've been looking
forward to for a long time and working hard on.
So it's going to be an amazing event.
And we're lucky to have some great sponsors like Milliger's, Aurora Healthcare, Culver's
and Journal Times.
So a lot of great support in and amongst, you know, the 30 plus local companies and organizations
that are sponsoring trees and reeds.
Now where do you see, we can somebody see this entire schedule like I have in front of
me here.
So festivalpark.com and go to the events page at the top.
Click that drop down.
You'll see current events and then just click on that and you'll see drop dead.
Yeah.
Drop down.
Okay.
So festival festival park dot com festival park dot com.
Yeah.
Follow the, yeah, the events page.
You'll see an events button at the top, but a banner there.
Click on that.
You'll see the drop down where it has current events and then the full lineup of events
will be listed there and just pick your favorite and click on that.
And you'll see all the, all the information and then, you know, for festival trees, the
ticket and events, there's, there's a button airing by tickets as well.
Boys, they got the parade coming up this Saturday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The DRC is working hard on that.
I was just giving out tooth decay chocolates the other day.
Don't make kids coming in.
We got so much is here.
I just had them.
I said, take a scoop.
A couple of scoops.
Our son just went out and bought barrel loads of care and name brand stuff though.
Oh, the good thing.
The kids were just, I said, take as much as you want.
Yeah.
I got to get this out of the house because I don't want to eat it and all the leftovers
I brought here.
It's in the lobby.
Yeah.
And we had a lot, a lot left over my wife is a guidance counselor at St. Katz.
So she took it all.
Take it.
I don't want to see it in the house.
Get it out of here.
Get it out of here.
All right.
Well, thank you.
And every month Kevin McDougal is here from 5K events and don't we're going to see
you again because as we get closer and they start putting the seeds in the ground.
We got to start talking about it.
Okay.
At the farmer's market.
Thank you guys for coming in.
Thanks, son.
Thank you.
Happy guy.
I love being here, Don.
And I see you all summer long every Sunday night at the, yeah, we have a good time and
we're seeing another great, another great season coming up and starting in July.
And they didn't even write the song, yet.
They're going to play.
No.
They haven't been written yet.
They're going to write them soon.
Thank you guys for coming in this morning.
