Saturday street event showcases businesses, has activities for all ages
By Mike Ramczyk
Correspondent
While the COVID-19 pandemic has kept people home most of the last year. things are finally starting to turn around.
Fully vaccinated people are now allowed inside buildings without a mask and mask mandates have fallen by the wayside.
What perfect timing for downtown Burlington.
The Loop, a one-block, one-way section of Chestnut Street from Milwaukee Avenue to Pine Street, has undergone a Renaissance, as places like Hansen’s Ice Cream shop, The The Runaway Micropub and Nanobrewery as well as Loop Commons have revitalized what had become a quiet area.
The whole idea is to get people to come downtown and check out what Burlington has to offer, encouraging community members to stay in their backyards and patronize local businesses.
Bernard Petersen, who owns two businesses in the Chestnut Street loop, MPC Property Management and the Runaway, had an idea to have an official “opening,” if you will, an introduction to the community of the revamped Loop.
The first annual Loop Day is set for Saturday, June 5, and Petersen along with Bevin Dawson of the Loop Commons and Kitty Cisler of Kitty Anne Creative are pumped to show off what they’ve been doing this past year.
Most of the new businesses have been started by 30-somethings, including Megan Schroeder at Hopscotch Cakery and Cali Simes of Cali Parisi Artistry.
Simes said Loop Day will be their official grand opening.
With open houses, yoga, food, drink and plenty of games for the kids, the Loop will be rocking, according to organizers.
Picnic tables will be set up, and barricades will prevent cars from entering.
It will have a classic summer festival feel, on a much smaller scale.
“We have a lot of cool businesses, and that’s kind of the idea behind Loop Day,” Petersen said. “There are new businesses and people investing a lot of money, and we want to highlight those businesses and the whole downtown.”
Dawson said the warmer weather is bringing more people out on the streets walking downtown, but inside at the Loop Commons they aren’t seeing too many casual workers.
However, there is interest in the rock-climbing wall, which Dawson said should be done by July.
“Our main goal is to instill in people that Burlington is a place worth visiting,” Dawson said. “It’s a big event June 5, but every day is like this downtown. The Loop is fun to come to.”
Petersen said Loop Day is like a kickoff to summer, and they want to showcase downtown Burlington.
“We’re going to be doing some mini-seminars, so Bevin is going to be roasting coffee. There will be brewery tours, and we’re hoping that Hansen’s will have some popcorn. We have a really cool photography art show, and we’re going to have live music all day.”
Business tours and mini-seminars, or demonstrations, will kick things off at 10 a.m., followed by yoga from 10:15 to 10:45 a.m.
At 11 a.m., there will be a performance by kid-friendly musician Duke Otherwise.
“He’s from Burlington, Noah Reimer, and he does a lot of shows at libraries and churches,” Petersen said.
Along with games, activities and outdoor vendors for kids, there will be safety tips from Burlington firefighters.
“Police and fire will be down here, and they’re going to be doing safety seminars,” Petersen said. “We’re not trying to make it like Chuck-E-Cheese, so we’re not doing jumpy houses and face painting, but we want families and kids running around and playing with other kids.”
Cisler said the photo show scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. is also family-friendly.
It will feature original art from local artists.
Petersen said the entire downtown is involved. Aubrey McGaughy from 2 Fancie Gals is leading the effort in areas outside of the Loop.. She will hand out a trail passport, something people can get stamped from each business and be entered to win raffle prizes.
In terms of food, The Runaway will be doing a grill and beer outside, and Zumpano’s will have pizza by the slice.
When 4 p.m. rolls around, it will be time for the adults to get down and dance to Reilly Rocks, a classic rock band.
Things will wrap up around 7 p.m.
Petersen originally wanted to do something inside the Runaway, but it wasn’t big enough.
So he figured why only do something for the Runaway, when they can do something for everyone and shut the Loop down?
“It’s just nice to get all these businesses outside for people to see,” Cisler said. “Even though there’s social media and everything, a lot of people don’t know what’s going on in the Loop. We want to get people in the building, and that’s why we’re having an art show in the co-working space at Loop Commons. We have about 100 photos.”
Dawson, Cisler and Petersen agree that getting the message out to people is the biggest challenge to getting people to come downtown.
“Some people still use the newspaper to find out what’s happening, and some only use Facebook,” Dawson said. “Having to decide where you distribute your information is kind of hard. That’s the challenge. The exciting part is all this new stuff happened, and a lot of people didn’t know about it. We spend a lot of our time during the day explaining what’s cool about Burlington.”
“So why not just have an event?”
Cisler said it will be nice to have a casual environment where people will have a variety of fun things to do.
“You have to show up,” Dawson added. “This is something you can’t experience on Facebook. You can’t get craft beer on Amazon. Burlington is a place to visit. And you don’t have to pay for parking. And it’s a free event.”
So why should people come down on June 5?
It’s a great community for talented artists and musicians, and Burlington is creative.
“Burlington gets painted as this stodgy, old, boring, conservative town, but Burlington is lively and vibrant and talented and creative. Through Loop Day, we will be able to showcase this,” Dawson said.
Petersen is looking forward to seeing families outside and enjoying themselves.
“I’m looking forward to seeing families in a public setting, not on Zoom meetings, and actually being outside and kids running around and playing with each other and not on video games,” he said. “I want to see people having some good food and drawing some attention to the new businesses.”
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