The Riverwest Cooperative Alliance (RCA), a group of cooperatively run businesses, will host the inaugural Co-op Fest in Riverwest, October 5 and 6. The first of its kind in the Milwaukee area, the festival will bring together member-owned organizations from around the region with the intention of educating community members about how to create cooperative business structures and generate local jobs.

Co-op Fest starts in Garden Park, on the corner of East Locust Street and North Bremen Street, on Saturday and continues in multiple locations on Sunday. Organizers will provide tours of local, cooperatively owned companies and lead comprehensive talks about the cooperative business model. Riverwest Cooperative and Café will offer vegan nosh for purchase, and Riverwest Public House, a member-owned cooperative tavern, will sell cold beer from the Lakefront Brewery and other local brew houses.

Cooperatives are autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. In recent years, Riverwest has received national attention for becoming a hub of cooperatively structured businesses.

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