Good Neighbor Festival organizers review 2025 event, request use of school grounds for 2026

Organizers of the Good Neighbor Festival reviewed the 2025 event at the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District board meeting on Nov. 3 and asked the board to consider allowing the festival on district grounds next year.

Presenters said the festival moved to new grounds on the high-school campus and that community response was generally positive. They reported strong weather and attendance and highlighted operational successes such as co-locating the parade route with the festival. At the same time, organizers identified areas for improvement including traffic flow, perimeter protection and post-event turf and parking-lot repairs.

Presenters described several measures taken to reduce neighborhood impact. Two residents whose late-term pregnancies overlapped the event were provided hotel accommodations by the festival after expressing distress; organizers said they worked with the Middleton Police Department and neighbors to prioritize access for residents within the perimeter. Organizers described plans to tighten perimeter controls next year, to implement a one-way in/one-way out traffic pattern, and to hire a turf specialist and a parking-lot cleaner by February to address grounds and parking-lot damage.

Board members asked follow-up questions about traffic and neighbor outreach, and organizers said they would return to the board with a formal request. The board did not take a formal vote at the Nov. 3 meeting; members said the request would be considered at a future meeting.