As Tone Madison‘s 10th anniversary approaches, we look back at some highlights from the past decade.

Tone Madison turns 10 years old this year. To mark a decade of our fiercely independent, reader-supported coverage of culture and politics in Madison, we’re revisiting some highlights from our archives. Got a favorite Tone Madison story you think we should include? Let us know by sending an email to editor@tonemadison.com. 

---

“While rescuing the field from being largely under-used, the management has given it an unmistakable whiff of affluent urbanism. Breese has a running event called the ‘Bodega’ that is not a bodega. A page on the field’s website advertising VIP tickets states that ‘There are people and then there are VIPs.’ (Note: ‘People’ have paid for the venue’s upkeep and renovations over the years through their taxes.)”

—Scott Gordon

---

Editor’s note: It feels almost quaint now to think that Madison’s entertainment landscape would somehow not become overpriced and gentrified. How else could it have turned out? Back in April 2017, this was not a new discussion, nor did it feel entirely settled. Developers were already hard at work rapidly remaking and “upscaling” central Madison. Live Nation had already gained a foothold in our concert market via the Orpheum. Frank Productions had just announced its acquisition of Majestic Live, and was about to break ground on the Sylvee as part of one of Gebhardt Development’s new mixed-use buildings on East Wash, after years of planning. Still, Live Nation hadn’t yet consolidated control over the market with a 2018 acquisition that went on to factor into a federal antitrust lawsuit. You could still kid yourself, kind of, that things could, somehow, break in another direction.

I can pinpoint the moment when the acceleration of all this began to feel uncontainable and unhinged: The arrival of the $500 picnic basket. As I wrote in an April 24, 2017 piece, Frank Productions booked Garrison Keillor at Breese Stevens Field for a show that September. The ticketing options included a package featuring a “specially curated picnic basket,” plus a table for four people to take in the latest droll maunderings from Lake Wobegon. (Keillor’s sexual harassment scandal would not break out into full public view until January 2018—not that it’s kept Madison venues from booking him in the ensuing years.) I’m not sure if the picnic deal ever came back for other shows, but it was emblematic of the fun-dampening upgrading and stratification that now feels so commonplace, even unremarkable, in our corporatized and cash-free concert spaces. —Scott Gordon, publisher

---

Breese Stevens Field to offer $500 “curated picnic basket” “experience”

The deal will be available at Garrison Keillor’s September 2 show.

Originally published April 24, 2017.

Garrison Keillor has announced a September 2 show at Breese Stevens Field, but the real news is getting buried under word of the retired A Prairie Home Companion host’s upcoming visit.

Local concert promoter Frank Productions’ press release for the show also advertised a “Picnic Table Experience,” featuring a table for four and a “specially curated picnic basket featuring: 2 bottles of local wine, Potter’s Crackers, Emmi Roth Cheese, local Sausage, 4 bottles of water, 2 apples, 2 pears, and a selection of local chocolates.”

The price tag? $500. You can also get just the basket, with general admission, for $125.

The package also includes “a keepsake basket, corkscrew, as well as disposable plates, silverware, and glasses.” Wait, disposable plates? And no picnic blanket, preferably made of ocelot fur, to protect the delicate rears of the upper crust from harsh seats, damp ground, or the vapors? Surely the blue bloods will not stand for this insult.

A Frank Productions spokesperson says the basket deal will only be available at the Keillor show, which the Wisconsin State Journal reports is being presented as a picnic-style evening for all attendees. It’s not clear if people can bring their own food a la Concerts on the Square, but it seems only fair to allow that, as Garrison Keillor’s crowd tends to be pretty curatorial about their cracker and sausage selection.

As Breese Stevens Field has come into its own as a venue these past few years, it’s been interesting to see how it reflects the flavor of the pricey new developments springing up next to it along East Washington Avenue. Breese is a publicly owned facility — technically a City of Madison park — but privately operated by Big Top Baseball, which also owns the Madison Mallards.

While rescuing the field from being largely under-used, the management has given it an unmistakable whiff of affluent urbanism. Breese has a running event called the “Bodega” that is not a bodega. A page on the field’s website advertising VIP tickets states that “There are people and then there are VIPs.” (Note: “People” have paid for the venue’s upkeep and renovations over the years through their taxes.)

Of course, you don’t have to be wealthy to enjoy an event at Breese, and concerts and sports events have long embraced a weird mix of populism and affluence — there are overpriced-beer-in-the-nosebleeds people, and then there are luxury-box people. And honestly, if you can convince people to spend serious money on a glorified snack pack, you kind of deserve it. Still, it’s tough to imagine a better symbol of gentrification than people enjoying a $500 picnic for four while Garrison Keillor holds forth in the background. Except for maybe a duck-fat spill.