What's on around Madison

The last outdoor Saturday of the year on the Capitol Square falls on November 14, and the same evening the first lights go on at Olin Park across Lake Monona. One week later the Farmers' Market reopens indoors at Monona Terrace and the Square is done until April. On Thanksgiving morning, runners line up in a Fitchburg business park for a race that a lot of people still call the Berbee Derby.

November around Madison turns on four dates: the election on Tuesday the 3rd, the last outdoor Farmers' Market on Saturday the 14th, Holiday Fantasy in Lights opening that same evening, and the Birdie Derby on Thanksgiving morning.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Wisconsin through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I have not been to any of these myself. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the city or the county that runs it, as each one published it for 2026. Anything I could only find on a previous year's listing was left out of the dated list, and the ones I had to leave out are named near the bottom. I checked all of it on October 27, 2026. If you are looking at homes anywhere from Waunakee down to Stoughton this fall, the Madison area buyer's guide covers the four counties here and the towns inside them.

Election day is Tuesday, November 3

Polls are open from seven in the morning to eight in the evening, and you vote at your assigned polling place. The City of Madison Clerk's elections page has the sites and the hours. Early in-person voting in the city ran from October 20 through October 31, at libraries, community centers and campus sites, and not every one of them was open every day.

A mailed absentee ballot has to reach the city Clerk's Office by eight on election night, and a postmark does not count, so the city's 14 drop boxes are the route that skips the mail. If you reach the polls without a photo ID, you can cast a provisional ballot and then get a copy of your ID to the clerk by four in the afternoon on Friday, November 6.

Your property tax bill comes later here than in most places. Wisconsin requires the bills to go out by the third Monday in December, and the Dane County Treasurer's property tax page puts the first installment deadline at January 31 and the second at July 31. Which office you pay depends on the municipality. The City of Madison is its own case: the City Treasurer collects through July 31 and Dane County only after that, and Madison lets you split the bill four ways, on January 31, March 31, May 31 and July 31. Elsewhere in the county the local treasurer generally takes the first installment and the county takes the rest, so read the bill rather than assuming. If your monthly payment includes the taxes, your lender collects through the year and pays for you. The Wisconsin lottery and gaming credit is a line on that bill that a new owner sometimes has to claim rather than receive automatically.

Badger football and basketball fill the Kohl Center and Camp Randall

Wisconsin's own basketball schedule keeps the men home at the Kohl Center five times. Denver opens it on Monday the 2nd at 6:30, Delaware follows on Friday the 6th at 6:30, and Fairfield comes in on Tuesday the 10th at 7:30. Coastal Carolina plays Sunday the 15th at seven, and Northeastern closes the month on Wednesday the 25th at six. National sites list several of those tip-offs an hour later than the university does, so the athletics page is the one to trust.

The football schedule has two home games this month. Rutgers comes to Camp Randall on Saturday, November 7, with the kickoff time still to be set. Minnesota comes in on Friday, November 27 at 6:30 in the evening, the day after Thanksgiving, with Paul Bunyan's Axe on the line. Anyone driving in for either game will want to look at the John Nolen Drive stages below before picking a route.

The last outdoor Saturday on the Square is November 14

The market's own 2026 planning calendar runs the Wednesday market on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for the last time on November 4. The Saturday market stays outdoors around the Capitol Square through November 14, from 6:15 in the morning to 1:45 in the afternoon, and that is the last outdoor Saturday of the year.

It moves inside a week later. The holiday market page puts it at Monona Terrace on Saturday, November 21 from 7:30 to noon, then on three December Saturdays. There is no market on November 28, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The winter market reopens at the Garver Feed Mill on January 2 and runs to early April, when the Square starts again.

Art fairs and makers markets, most weekends of the month

Monona Terrace opens the month on Sunday the 1st. Its own events calendar has Madison Comic Con there from ten in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon.

The Winter Art Fair Off the Square takes the same building the following weekend. The Wisconsin Alliance of Artists and Craftspeople, which runs it, brings in more than 135 Wisconsin artists and makers for Saturday the 7th from nine to five and Sunday the 8th from ten to four. Admission is five dollars, and a Young Collectors' Corner lets children under 12 buy work at prices aimed at them. This is the 37th year, and it is the winter companion to the same group's Art Fair Off the Square in July.

Three more land later in the month. Holidays Galore and More runs in the Attic Angel Association building on Junction Road, Friday the 13th from nine to four and Saturday the 14th from nine to one, with holiday decor, hand-crafted work and a bake sale. The Native Art Market brings more than 40 Native artists to the Arts + Literature Laboratory on South Livingston Street on Saturday the 14th, ten to five, with eight workshops running alongside the selling. The Black Friday Madison Makers Market spreads more than 50 local and regional vendors across eight near east side businesses on Friday the 27th, noon to five.

Overture Hall has the symphony, the organ and a Broadway week

The Madison Symphony Orchestra's own calendar opens the month with a Tchaikovsky program conducted by Laura Jackson, November 6 through 8, with the Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and the Sunday matinee at 2:30.

The orchestra's 26-27 organ season page brings Greg Zelek back to the Overture Concert Organ on Thursday, November 19 at 7:30, with Lucrecia and the Celia Cruz All Stars as the guest artists. Overture's own season page then has the touring production of Maybe Happy Ending in Overture Hall for Thanksgiving week, November 24 through 29.

Over on the east side, Flannel Fest is at the Barrymore Theatre on Atwood Avenue on Friday the 20th, doors at five and the show at six, with Dawes headlining.

Olin Park lights up on the 14th, and Thanksgiving morning belongs to the Birdie Derby

Holiday Fantasy in Lights opens at Olin Park on Saturday, November 14 and runs nightly from dusk. The drive through the park costs nothing, and candy canes are handed out from 4:30 until ten each night. One thing to watch on the way out: the organizer's own page prints the closing date as December 31, 2027, while Travel Wisconsin's listing has the run ending December 31, 2026. Check before you drive out in January.

The Thanksgiving morning race is the Birdie Derby now, and for years before that the Berbee Derby. Its own registration page keeps it at the Fitchburg Business Park on East Cheryl Parkway on Thursday, November 26. Race-morning packet pickup is at seven, the free Kids Dash for ages two to six at eight, the 10K at 8:30, the 5K run at 8:50 and the 5K walk at nine. Packet pickup also runs at Hatchery Hill Town Center on the 24th and the 25th.

Events I could not confirm for this year

Seven holiday events that usually land in late November are not in the dated list above, because none of them had a 2026 date posted when I checked on October 27.

Sun Prairie's Fire and Lights Holiday Parade, Middleton's Light the Green and Waunakee's Rotary Lights are the three that most often fall inside November. Visit Madison's holiday guide carries Verona's Hometown Holidays and Stoughton's Victorian Holiday Weekend as to be announced for 2026, and the dates circulating for all five come from last season's listings. Mount Horeb had nothing dated on its own calendar, and no 2026 date was posted for the Capitol Christmas tree lighting either. Each city's own events page is where the date will appear.

Art at the Wright Place, the arts and crafts sale at the First Unitarian Society's meeting house on University Bay Drive, also stayed out. A local roundup lists it for November 20 and 21, but I could not find those dates on the society's own page, and a third-party listing is not what I will put a date on here. The society's art fair page is where it will appear.

Two Overture listings also stayed out. Visit Madison has Cash Box Kings on November 27 and Yid Vicious on November 28 without naming which hall, and a hall matters when three of them share one address.

New around Madison this year

John Nolen Drive is in the middle of a rebuild that runs into 2027, and it is the road to Monona Terrace and the Alliant Energy Center. The city engineering division's own project update dated September 4 puts Stage 3 as starting July 14 of this year, with the causeway work finishing in late spring 2027. Nine new bridges replace six across the causeway, including three for a separated path, and the Capital City Trail along that stretch closes during the final stage with a detour around Monona Bay. The Alliant Energy Center adds that later phases are scheduled for 2028 and 2029.

US 51, which Madison drivers call Stoughton Road, is being reconstructed from Stoughton north toward Madison. WisDOT's own project presentation puts this year's work between Harrison Street and South Quam Drive, staged so that stretch stays open to through traffic. Next year is the harder one: during the 2027 season US 51 between South Quam Drive and County B/AB is to be closed to through traffic and detoured, with local access only. If you are weighing two homes on either side of that corridor, you will want to make the drive at the hour you would normally be on the road.

The north-south bus rapid transit line is still in design, and no buses run on it yet. The city's own page for Route B is the one to watch: the city reached 60 percent design in late 2025, construction has not started, and the dates published so far put service in 2028 at the earliest. The line is planned from Northport Drive and Packers Avenue in the north, in along East Washington Avenue, then south on Park Street into Fitchburg. That is about nine miles of new bus lanes and more than twenty new stations, with South Park Street rebuilt as part of it. The east-west line, Rapid Route A, has been running since September 2024 from the Sun Prairie park-and-ride to Junction Road.

A job that starts or moves changes which documents go on your loan file. For a salaried position, please provide your offer letter and your pay stubs covering the last 30 days, please. If you will be working for yourself once you arrive, please provide your complete income tax returns, all pages and schedules, please. We will need the past two years for you personally and for any business that you may have an interest in. Getting pre-approved in Wisconsin covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Wisconsin covers the returns side of it.

Common questions

What is happening around Madison at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Birdie Derby runs that morning from the Fitchburg Business Park, with the 10K at 8:30 and the 5K run at 8:50. Wisconsin plays Minnesota at Camp Randall the next evening at 6:30 for Paul Bunyan's Axe. The Black Friday Madison Makers Market runs that same Friday. Holiday Fantasy in Lights is open nightly at Olin Park. The Dane County Farmers' Market takes the Saturday of that weekend off and comes back at Monona Terrace in December.

When does the Dane County Farmers' Market move indoors in 2026?

November 21, at Monona Terrace, from 7:30 in the morning to noon. The market's holiday page has that Saturday and then three in December, with no market on November 28. The last outdoor Saturday on the Capitol Square is November 14, and the Wednesday market on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard finishes on November 4. The winter market opens at the Garver Feed Mill on January 2.

When does Holiday Fantasy in Lights open at Olin Park?

Saturday, November 14, according to the display's own site, running nightly from dusk through the end of December. Driving through costs nothing. Olin Park is on the Lake Monona side of John Nolen Drive, which is under reconstruction this year, so the approach may not be the one you remember.

Which county are these towns in, and does it matter for a mortgage?

It matters for the tax bill, which is usually part of your monthly payment. Madison, Middleton, Sun Prairie, Verona, Fitchburg, Waunakee, Stoughton, Oregon and McFarland are all in Dane County. Portage, Lodi, Poynette and Columbus are in Columbia County. Monroe, New Glarus and Brodhead are in Green County, and Dodgeville, Mineral Point and Barneveld are in Iowa County. In Wisconsin your town, village or city sets much of the levy. Which office collects the bill depends on the municipality. In the City of Madison the City Treasurer takes payments through July 31, while elsewhere in Dane County the local treasurer generally takes the first installment and the county the rest. A mailing address does not tell you the municipality or the school district, and both belong on your list for any address.

I am moving to the Madison area this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with the municipality on any address you are serious about, because the city, village or town line decides the levy, the building code and who collects your tax bill. After that, the Wisconsin page covers the statewide rules, including the fact that all property of spouses is presumed marital in Wisconsin, which puts both signatures on a cash-out refinance regardless of whose name is on the deed. If the home is on a private well, the Wisconsin well inspection before you buy walks through the test and the timing. Then please give me a call and tell me which towns you are looking in, and I can tell you what your numbers look like in each of them.