State Street is the spine of Madison's downtown — a pedestrianised street (closed to private cars, open to buses and delivery vehicles) that runs for almost exactly one mile from the foot of the Wisconsin State Capitol to the edge of the University of Wisconsin campus. It is one of the most distinctive commercial streets in the American Midwest, and most of what makes Madison feel like Madison is concentrated along it.
The mix is part of its appeal: used bookshops, independent coffee places, record stores, student bars, galleries, a food co-op, ice-cream parlours, and the Overture Center for the Arts at the eastern end. On warm evenings the street fills with students, professors, families, and visitors. Street performers work the corners, and there is usually live music drifting from open bar doors.
State Street is also a useful orientation point. If you're at the Capitol end you're at the heart of the isthmus; if you're at the university end you're at the lake. Everything important in central Madison is within a few blocks of State Street or one of the cross-streets that feed it.