Madison, Wis. — Tim Metcalfe, the organizer of an annual, meaty bacchanal called the World’s Largest Brat Fest, had a few innocent ideas for shaking up the festival this year. He added a free Sunday-morning worship service to the lineup. One outdoor stage would be devoted to bands playing Christian music. And he invited Bob Lenz, a gregarious motivational speaker, to talk about teen suicide prevention.
But this month, a local newspaper noted that Mr. Lenz had ties to anti-abortion groups, particularly one called Save the Storks, which parks buses in front of abortion clinics and offers ultrasounds to pregnant women, a practice that some people consider harassment. Many liberal-leaning residents of Madison (and there are a lot of them) publicly said they would rather skip the Memorial Day weekend festival and its four-day extravaganza of bratwurst and beer.
“My reaction was, this doesn’t have a very Madison feel to it,” said Lisa Subeck, a member of the City Council, who declined to attend. “It really will turn many people off.” With Mr. Lenz appearing as a speaker, she said, “you really have to think, this isn’t reflective of our values.”
Within days, Mr. Metcalfe called Mr. Lenz to deliver a message: You are no longer invited.
Now some residents of Madison, a picturesque college town and state capital, are wondering how a humble festival has been turned into a debate over abortion rights, evangelicals, free speech and the crowd-pleasing qualities of Christian rock.
Perhaps nerves are still a little frayed here, three years after angry protests over a collective-bargaining law shook the Capitol, and the failed attempt to recall Gov. Scott Walker the year after that.
Some longtime residents said they missed the time when Wisconsin seemed more politically easygoing, a place where voters kept a Republican governor, Tommy G. Thompson, in office from 1987 to 2001. (Mr. Thompson might not fit in with today’s Republican Party, given his dreams of high-speed rail and his embrace of health care for the poor.)
These days, being utterly divided feels like the new normal.
“People have gotten way too sensitive,” said Ruth Agnew, a 56-year-old secretary who said she leans conservative. She was one of the first people to stream onto the festival grounds on Friday on the first morning of the event.
“Whatever happened to freedom of speech?” chimed in her companion, Bea Hernandez, a retired nurse.
Other people attending Brat Fest were exasperated that the organizers would take a secular event and introduce a religious element. “This isn’t the venue for that,” said Angie Ouverson, who was at the festival celebrating her 49th birthday, sipping a local Ghost Ship ale from a plastic cup. “We’re here for the fun and the food. It’s not about religion.”
Nearby, vendors hawked Brat Fest hats, T-shirts, shot glasses and baby bibs, all emblazoned with drawings of brats. Couples and families lined up under the blazing sun, 30 people deep, for freshly grilled brats ($3), roasted corn on the cob ($2) and local craft beer ($6).
The debate over Brat Fest all started mildly enough, with a headline in the Wisconsin State Journal reading, “Brat Fest Takes a Big Turn Toward Religion This Year.” The article pointed out Mr. Lenz’s ties to anti-abortion activism, particularly to Save the Storks, which abortion-rights supporters say intimidates pregnant women.
That delicate issue happened to be on a lot of people’s minds: In February, the Madison City Council took aim at the group’s buses by unanimously passing an ordinance establishing a “buffer zone” around health care facilities.
Only days after local legislators began to protest the inclusion of Mr. Lenz, Mr. Metcalfe, the owner of a small grocery-store chain, posted on Facebook, “After learning that suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths for teenagers, I invited a motivational speaker who was going to focus on teens, suicide and prevention. It was brought to my attention that the speaker’s affiliation caused some concerns and as a result, I respectfully rescinded the offer. Our goal is to make Brat Fest a great experience for all who attend.”
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Metcalfe declined to comment further.
In blog posts and letters to the editor, conservatives accused liberals of being intolerant of opposing viewpoints. Liberals said they had every right to protest the appearance of a speaker who, in their view, did not respect women’s access to health care.
The opposition to a stage devoted to Christian music prompted Chris Rickert, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal, to wryly suggest parsing what he considered the misogynistic lyrics of other musicians appearing at the festival, like Bret Michaels of the band Poison.
Ms. Subeck, the City Council member, said the free-speech argument did not hold up, since this was a private event. “There’s nothing that prevents him from speaking out in other venues,” she said of Mr. Lenz.
Facing a possible boycott, Mr. Metcalfe may have been making a “wise business decision” in canceling Mr. Lenz’s appearance, she added.
Mr. Lenz, in an interview on Friday, said there were no hard feelings. “Tim felt bad,” he said. “He’s a great guy. I still have nothing but love for him. He was put in a hard position.”
He said he had no plans to attend the festival. “I’m not going because I don’t want to pour fuel on the fire,” he said.