{"id":2278048,"date":"2026-02-11T22:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2278048"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:03:22","slug":"series-of-music-events-to-mark-madisons-first-30-years-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/series-of-music-events-to-mark-madisons-first-30-years-local-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Series of music events to mark Madison’s first 30 years | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

BENNINGTON \u2014 Celebrating its 30th anniversary in business, Madison Brewing<\/a> Pub & Restaurant will launch on Friday the first in a year-long series of planned musical events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our first big event; you know, for our 30th anniversary \u2013 1996 to 2026,\u201d said co-owner Michael Madison, whose family established the landmark 428 Main Street brew pub in February 1996.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are celebrating this year on the 13th,\u201d he said. \u201cOur actual anniversary is the 14th. We opened on Valentine\u2019s Day, 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday night, Madison\u2019s will feature Jarod Eldred & Devan Warika, beginning at 7 p.m., with no cover charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we would like to do is, say, like a Madison\u2019s 30th anniversary series,\u201d Madison said this week. \u201cLike entertainment, bands throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe also might do something outside, like the parking lot party we held last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That event \u201cwas really big,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we\u2019ll do a couple parking lot parties over the summer through the fall. We are going to celebrate this throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael and his brother and co-owner, Mel Madison, also expect to schedule something to wrap up the anniversary year in November or December.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we tried out our parking lot party, and it was a huge success,\u201d Mel said. \u201cWe want to focus on a parking lot series, and we really want to get moving on that to get [performers] we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers said that at least once a month they hope to bring a 30th anniversary event through 2026.<\/p>\n

Early brews returning<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first beer we ever made here was Crowtown Pale Ale,\u201d Michael said, \u201cso we are going to have that available for Friday night.<\/p>\n

In 1996, he said, \u201cI believe we started out with five or six. Now we have 13. And we have a few on right now that are original.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those include Crowtown Pale Ale, Sucker Pond Blonde and Old 76 Strong Ale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we\u2019ll be throwing some in from the 1990s when we first opened throughout this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Referring to the Friday event, Michael said, \u201cYou know, we are going to put our Crowtown Pale on tap, and we are going to go back to 1996 pricing for that beer for the day. I think it is about three dollars … And then we will have some specials for the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sense of pride<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a sense of pride of being a restaurant open for 30 years, knowing that it is a high-failure industry,\u201d Mel said. \u201cA lot of businesses don\u2019t last more that a couple years. But we are, I think, the longest lasting existing restaurant [in Bennington] with the same owner, with the exception of Your Belly\u2019s Deli and Jeff Magnifico.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to be successful over 30 years, it is quite the undertaking,\u201d Mel said. \u201cIt took a lot of hard work and a good staff. We don\u2019t grind as hard as we used to \u2013 we\u2019re older \u2013 it takes a physical toll over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madison\u2019s was also one of the first small brewing operations that sprouted around Vermont in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Family members became interested in learning how to brew, including the science of it, having read such authors as Greg Noonan, a pioneer in homebrewing methodology and co-founder of one of the first brewpubs in New England.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n Debut novelist returns to Madison’s, which is a setting in his book<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

The Madisons also attended demonstrations or toured breweries around the region, such as at Brown\u2019s Brewing in Troy, N.Y., and Long Trail and Magic Hat in Vermont.<\/p>\n

During the 1990s, micro breweries and brew pubs quickly became a hot concept, Mel said, spurring a 1994 article in Entrepreneur Magazine, which lauded the current business prospects for small brewing enterprises.<\/p>\n

Established after fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought the building in 1995,\u201d Michael Madison said. \u201cThat was the year of construction, and then we opened on February 14 of 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his brother operate the business, while noting their debt to the hard work of employees, many of whom have worked there for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of this business is our staff, and of course our loyal customers who have been here for years,\u201d Michael said. \u201cWe have staff \u2013 I think our longest two are at 22 years and 23 years, and we\u2019ve got a bunch over 10. A lot of them have worked since high school and are still here. So our employees are a big part of it. We are like a big family here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building was the site of the former Adams Clothing Store, which had been gutted in a May 1990 fire that a Banner headline said left residents standing on Main Street appearing stunned.<\/p>\n

This was not long before another devastating Main Street fire, which leveled the Harte Theatre at 481 Main Street in 1991. The two blazes left downtown Bennington demoralized with two blackened commercial properties.<\/p>\n

Madison\u2019s brew pub was one of the new businesses that emerged to fill a key downtown space.<\/p>\n

Family business<\/strong><\/p>\n

My brother Mark and I, we worked at the Equinox Hotel Resort before we started here,\u201d Michael said. \u201cMy parents [Michael and the late Marilyn \u201cMickey\u201d Madison] owned Tastee-Freeze for 40 something years. It was a big family thing to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIt started out my brother Mark [who later left the business] was the brewer; me and Mel worked out in the front. And then we have had to learn a lot of things throughout the years, and the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth my parents were here helping out,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are the main reason \u2013 without them, we would not be here … My mother passed away three and a half years ago. She did all the deserts. She did all the baking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael said he also met his wife, Betsy, at Madison\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.benningtonbanner.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BENNINGTON \u2014 Celebrating its 30th anniversary in business, Madison Brewing Pub & Restaurant will launch on Friday the first in a year-long series of planned musical events. \u201cThis is our first big event; you know, for our 30th anniversary \u2013 1996 to 2026,\u201d said co-owner Michael Madison, whose family established the landmark 428 Main Street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2278049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[347986,441128,441127,369434,41317],"class_list":["post-2278048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-30th-anniversary","tag-bennington","tag-madison-brew-pub","tag-main-street","tag-music-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Series-of-music-events-to-mark-Madisons-first-30-years.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2278050,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278048\/revisions\/2278050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}