A quarter century of Wednesday Night Live

Twenty-five years. More than 100 bands. Thousands of audience members. This is the story of Wednesday Night Live, a free, grassroots community concert series that has become an iconic part of any Mount Horeb summer. 

One day, just over a quarter century ago, a school art teacher in Mount Horeb had an idea. She would bring the rich colors and joyous sounds of a vibrant Caribbean festival to the small, Midwestern village she called home. 

“The seed of it all was Trinidad, steel drums and children dancing,” reflected that teacher, Sage “Stacy” Lewis, known to some in the community as Ms. Orange. The seed blossomed into a free, local concert series called Wednesday Night Live, which will begin its 25th season on July 6 at Grundahl Park this summer. 

Lewis took the money raised at that first concert and donated it to found the concert series. She soon left the community and currently calls Arizona home, but what she started has continued to grow and thrive, thanks to the work of countless people who believe the music gives people a well-deserved break from the stresses and perils of the modern world. 

“This drew the community together,” Lewis said. “I know of no other way to say it.”

While the first show, which featured a steel drum band called Od Tapo Imi, took place in 1998, Wednesday Night Live’s roots actually stretch back even further. 

“It’s a long story,” explained Lewis. “In 1980, my then-husband, Gerard ‘Gerry’ Brillowski, who has passed away now, went to Trinidad as a missionary. He was a percussionist, and he came back with a set of steel drums, but not knowing how to play them.” He learned the instrument, and a decade later he taught Lewis to play them, too. Then, a group of friends, including Lewis, Brillowski, and a man named Ward Hammond joined together in their own steel drum band, calling it Od Tapo Imi.

In 1997, Brillowski and Lewis went to Trinidad for Carnival. At the time, Lewis was an art teacher at the Intermediate Center school in Mount Horeb.

“I brought home this idea of bringing Carnival to the kids,” she said. “We studied it from October to February, and the culmination at the end was a show we put on for the community. It was at the high school and Od Tapo Imi played.”

The concert raised $3,000, which Lewis used to found what would become Wednesday Night Live. She hand-painted the iconic logo, which shows the summer sun smiling down on the community. 

“I went to the Optimist Club and said I wanted to start a concert series with this money I’d raised,” she said. “I get choked up thinking about it now, because honestly, at the time, I thought it would only last one summer.”

“It was the one thing missing in the community; a summer concert series,” she added. 

“Emotional and humbling”

No one has been involved in as many ways, and for as long, as Charlie Jefko. He is one of the key reasons the concerts have gone on, year after year. For years, Jefko has helped guide and grow the event.

“It’s been just fantastic,” Jefko said. “It’s really become a well-loved thing. I joke with people that I really do the concerts for myself and everybody else comes.”

In WNL’s first years, Jefko served as a vital link to its primary funding source. 

“At the time, I was a member of the Summer Frolic Committee, and so I worked to get funding from them,” he said. “The Frolic was really the major contributor from the beginning. They contributed $5,000 a year, for years.” The Frolic committee has been a sponsor of Wednesday Night Live from the very beginning of the series. In fact, they were the only sponsor for the first seven years. The only other income in those days was donations from the crowd in attendance. Starting in 2006, the Frolic’s yearly sponsorship was reduced to $2,500. They were and continue to be the series’ largest sponsor, having contributed $75,000 to the series over the last 25 years. The Mount Horeb Community Foundation has been a yearly supporter of Wednesday Night Live since 2011 with a total of $22,200 in financial support. Since 2006, multiple businesses in and around Mount Horeb have been corporate sponsors at different levels. Approximately one third of the annual budget is funded by the crowd’s donations.

“I had no plan in place,” commented Lewis. “The Optimist Club and the Frolic took it and kept it going, and so many community members were instrumental in making it happen.”

In the ensuing years, the Frolic, the Mount Horeb Community Foundation, countless businesses and citizen donors all kept the series afloat. 

“I did so little, and look what grew out of it,” said Lewis. 

While Lewis’ stay in Mount Horeb did not last as long as that of the concerts she founded, she plans to return this year, for the July 6 performance that will kick off the series’ 25th year. 

“When I realized it was the 25th anniversary this year, I turned to my husband and said: ‘I need to go back. I need to thank the community,’” she said. “It’s emotional and humbling.”

The opening concert will feature Panchromatic Steel, a steel drum band that took inspiration from Od Tapo Imi. 

“We, some of the members of Od Tapo Imi, will jam with them,” Lewis said. 

‘It’s become an institution’

Ward Hammond has a degree in music education and played in the band that started it all, but it was perhaps his role booking other artists that had the largest impact on Wednesday Night Live. 

“I tried to pride myself on never repeating a musical style, I wanted to put out as many types of music as possible,” Hammond said. 

“It just had a momentum,” reflected Hammond. “It just happened. It’s become an institution. I don’t think it’s ever going away. It’s a great summer night.” 

But there was another famous – or perhaps infamous – aspect of those early concerts: the stage. 

“My biggest memory is building that damn stage,” Hammond chuckled.

In those days, the stage had to be put up at the start of each season and taken down after the last note had been played. Each fall, it was stored in a barn owned by Jack and Deb Markin.

“It was a lot of work,” said Jefko. “It took a lot of volunteers. We would build the stage every summer.”

But in 2006, Cynthia Jefko and Pam Schall saved the day when they drafted a grant request to the Mount Horeb Community Foundation for $8,000 to build a permanent stage at Grundahl Park. In the spring of 2007, carpenter Dan Ganch built the new stage, which still stands today.

‘It was a very lucky situation’

Jacob Mills, who lives in Mazomanie, was involved with Wednesday Night Live for well over a decade. 

“Ward came to me and basically said he didn’t mind doing the booking, but he wanted me to emcee,” Mills recalled. Mills, who owns a circus school and “runs in entertainment circles,” jumped at the chance. 

“Jacob was a natural,” commented Jefko. “He’s a performer. So he was the emcee, the voice of Wednesday Night Live for years. I was in the background working on fundraising, advertising and bands.” 

“It was a very lucky situation,” Mills agreed.

“My musical tastes tend to be very different than those of average people,” Mills said. “My first goal was it should be something that wouldn’t alienate. Kids had to be able to play and families should be able to sit on the hill with a blanket. My second goal was that it had to be something that hadn’t come to Mount Horeb before, and I wanted as much ethnic music as I could find.”

“I think one of the tricks is just to hire professionals, then you don’t have to worry about that aspect of things,” Mills continued. “I always thought the point of performing was to bring the energy, to bring the zoom. We paid well and the musicians knew they would be home by midnight, which isn’t always the case with other shows.”

When asked to name his favorite performer, Mills was quick to answer: “Willy Porter.”

“He’s one of the best,” he said. “He would come out and make everyone feel like his friend. He’d look right in your eyes.”

“I remember a little girl trying to hand a dandelion to Willy while he was playing, and he just stops, puts it behind his ear, kisses her hand and goes back to playing,” Mills continued. 

Over the years, there were lightning storms, floods, heat waves and a variety of other complications. There was, of course, a global pandemic that put the concerts on hold in 2020 when county health officials banned large gatherings. Once, years earlier, an R&B singer had a heart attack and collapsed on the grass behind the stage. But Mills says some of the obstacles – medical incidents notwithstanding - only served to make special memories. For all the people who made Wednesday Night Live what it is, those memories are the most important thing. 

“I was so proud to be able to do that,” Mills said. “To look out over the grass and see so many people having a good time.”

“To me, that’s the most gratifying part,” agreed Jefko. “The most satisfying part. The music is good, I love the music, but to see all those kids running around, and all those families having a good time; I think it’s the best thing that happens in the summer.”

An escape from toxicity

It is because of their love for Wednesday Night Live that organizers have always made sure to bring new people on board to help keep it going. The newest producer is Mandy Potter, who joined Jefko in his efforts last season. 

“I needed someone as enthusiastic about the concerts as I was,” Jefko said. “She loves the concerts and was just the right person at the right time.”

“[Wednesday Night Live] is definitely a force,” commented Potter. “And there’s a lot of love behind it. I think it will keep going even beyond you and I.”

She mused that the concerts offer the people of Mount Horeb “a weekly escape from all the outside stresses and toxicity in the world.”

Potter moved to Mount Horeb eight years ago. When she did, she noticed a flyer for Wednesday Night Live. A couple years later, she decided she wanted to become more involved with the local music scene. 

“For me, it was part of a very personal journey of bringing more music into my life,” she said. “I’ve really fallen in love with a lot of the bands on the local scene.”

She met Jefko when she contacted him with a band recommendation. He booked the band, discovered Potter’s passion for music, and soon brought her in to help more. Last year was her first as a full co-producer. 

“I feel very fortunate to be part of it,” Potter said. “I hope I can contribute to its legacy.”

According to Lewis, that legacy is a beautiful thing: “It has the essence of Carnival and the Caribbean; there is nothing like it. We brought that spirit to a Norwegian farming town. It creates an incredible sense of oneness.”