Madison’s first gluten free fest draws hundreds to ALT Brew | Food & Drink
On Sunday, June 2, hundreds of people came out to ALT Brew, a gluten-free brewery on Madison’s north side, for the first annual Mad Gluten Free Fest.
Meghan Stern of Dane Buy Local and Melissa Bennett, founder of Haven Gluten Free, organized the festival. ALT Brew offered the space outside for free, with booths ranging from bakers and food carts (Walking Jerk, Tots on the Street, Cafe Costa Rica) to sweet makers like Lily’s Magical Treats and Madison Chocolate Co. Related vendors sold soap, cookbooks and gluten-free pride swag.
Co-founder Bennett said she was inspired by Maifest at Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee.
The Madison event “went better than we expected,” Bennett said. “So many more people showed up than we thought there would be.”
Bennett noted that many vendors ran out of product, some quite quickly. Still, “everyone was still kind and nice about it, (saying) ‘It just means this is really important and we’re glad you’re doing it.’
“People came from Green Bay, the Twin Cities,” Bennett said. “It was such a great experience as a member of the gluten-free community.”
The festival is “absolutely” coming back, she said, and organizers are already talking about improvements for next year. Gluten Free Fest was also a kind of proof of concept for how many people want and need gluten-free food options, an opportunity businesses could seize.
“My dream would be to have a kitchen that is a shared kitchen, like how FEED Kitchens is or Christine’s Kitchen, but is dedicated gluten-free,” Bennett said. “Then businesses who want to stay celiac friendly, gluten-free, can stay and step up their business.
“Everyone sees it’s so needed,” she said. “Let’s take the next step and invest in something that will support this gluten-free community in Madison.”
— Lindsay Christians
Sarah Burns, co-owner of Omega Bakery in Holmen, talks with other vendors just before the start of the first-ever Mad Gluten Free Fest outside of ALT Brew in Madison Sunday morning.
Cherie Rumph, in orange, and and Melissa Bennett, in green, work at the festival welcome tent. Bennett credited the fest’s success to Rumph, Trina La Susa of Instagram’s @glutenfreemadison account, Erin Dawson, owner of goodAF*baking, and Meghan Stern from Dane Buy Local.
Tatiana Berindei feeds a gluten-free Earl Grey doughnut from Tisha’s Delicious Bakery to her daughter, Luna Plane Bride (age 4).
Gluten-free cupcakes in a variety of flavors are stocked in the MOR Bakery tent at the festival. MOR is based out of Milwaukee and has been in-business for more than five years.
Tiffany Messenger and Lily Todd make snow cones for customers at the Lily’s Magical Treats tent. The mother-daughter team needed additional help to keep up with the demand at the event.
Taylor, age 2, draws with sidewalk chalk at the kids’ tent, which also included other crafts and activities.
Festival-goers drink gluten-free beer on the patio outside of ALT Brew.
Customers line up to order from The Walking Jerk food cart. Nearly every vendor experienced long lines throughout the event, which was a greater success than expected.
MOR Bakery brought hundreds of sweet and savory baked goods to sell; outlasting most vendors who were sold out of food within two hours of the event’s start time.
Keiko, a Shiba Inu, watches festival-goers passby as his mom visits the Isthmus Eats tent.
A family receives samples of dairy-free and gluten-free Greek almond dip from Yaya’s Skordalia, which is based in East Troy. Vendors from many locations throughtout the state of Wisconsin sold goods at the event.
Finley (age 6) has his hands full with cotton candy and a snow cone from Lily’s Magical Treats, an organic, dye-free sweet treat business based in Madison.
Most vendors sold out within two hours of the start Mad Gluten Free Fest. Most vendors weren’t expecting to see such a high number of visitors, and many said they were pleasantly surprised by the turnout.
Ruthie Hauge, a Chicagoland native, is photo director at the Cap Times. She received a bachelor’s in fine arts from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and was a photographer for Sun-Times Media in the Chicago area before joining the Cap Times in 2020.
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