The beer tent at Ashley for the Arts — Arcadia, WI, August 2025.
I spent a day this August working the beer tent at Ashley for the Arts, and it was great. Not because of the music or the crowds — because of what the whole thing is for.
Ashley for the Arts is a three-day music and arts festival in Arcadia, Wisconsin — a town of about 3,000 people that swells to tens of thousands for the weekend. It's put on by Ashley Furniture Industries, and it's one of the biggest charity events in the state.
The lineup was stacked this year — Daughtry, ZZ Top, and Brad Paisley on Friday; Third Eye Blind and Darius Rucker on Saturday. I wasn't in the crowd for any of it. I was behind a folding table, pouring beer.
The beer tent is the unglamorous job. Standing for hours, making change, keeping the line moving, smiling at people who are there to have a good time. It's not complicated work, and it's exactly the kind of work that keeps a festival like this running.
And it matters more than it looks. This year the event raised over $715,000 for nearly 70 local nonprofits — schools, children's charities, medical research. The volunteers work shifts, and the groups they represent earn support based on those shifts. So pouring beer is, literally, the donation.
Showing up matters. Not everything has to be a side project or a growth story. Sometimes the work is just showing up, doing the unglamorous job, and going home knowing the event raised a little more because you were there.
Until the next run out — work hard, play hard.