Happy February! It’s the shortest month of the year, which must make it seem even more packed with stuff to do in Madison. On the City Cast Madison podcast today, we talk about our favorite things to see, do and eat this month, along with our suggestions on how to “spread the love” in Madison!
Here’s some more things to do to get the most out of February:
Get Outside!
Everybody should get out on a frozen Madison lake at least once during the winter, and the Frozen Assets Festival on Feb. 7 at the Edgewater Hotel on the shore of Lake Mendota is a perfect way to do so. Enjoy free ice skating and hot chocolate, watch large kites fly over the lake, try your hand at pond hockey and more. It’s a family-friendly event put on by Clean Lakes Alliance. (Frozen Assets Festival is a sponsor of City Cast Madison, but this mention is editorially independent.)
Down the shoreline at the UW-Madison Memorial Union, the Winter Carnival is taking place Feb. 5-7. It’s three days of free activities sponsored by the Hoofers, and a great way to try an outdoor activity (including skating lessons, ice fishing lessons, and ice climbing) or just enjoy a chili cookoff, a pancake breakfast, or a performance from the Wisconsin Singers.
Meanwhile, Madison parks will continue to offer plenty of winter fun, including ice skating, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Several parks also offer free equipment rentals, but only through Feb. 15.
Cozy Up With a Madison Writer!
February is usually the month where I finish all the books I got for Christmas and am hunting for something else to read. Luckily, Madison writers are showing up big with new books this month.
Susanna Daniel (“Stiltsville”) will be talking about her new book “Girlfriending” with another great writer, Minnesota’s Curtis Sittenfeld, on Feb. 12 at a Wisconsin Book Festival event at Madison Public Library. On Feb. 18, UW-Madison professor Etheline Whitmire will talk about her biography of Reed Peggram, a Black American who joined the French Resistance against the Nazis.
And former Madison writer and Cap Times columnist Jacquelyne Mitchard will return home on Feb. 24 for a reading of her new thriller “The Bird Watcher.” (The Wisconsin Book Festival is also a sponsor of this newsletter, but rest assured, I picked these events without any influence!)
Speaking of mysteries, two powerhouse local writers, Ann Pease and Annelise Ryan, will chat at Mystery to Me Bookstore on Feb. 3 about their new books, “Wildwood” and “Monster in the Moonlight.”
And if your bent is more towards poetry than prose, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets is hosting weekly Winter Festival of Poetry readings on Sunday afternoons at Cafe Coda and Delta Beer Lab.
