22 Musings From a Summerfest Regular About This Year’s Big Gig

Milwaukee’s big gig, aka Summerfest is mostly about the music. But after decades of attending the festival in sweltering heat, torrential rain, or even the perfectly comfortable summer conditions of this year’s opening weekend, I realize it’s also about the quirky experiences, fun encounters, and delightful memories festgoers share along the way. 

My usual Summerfest strategy involves zipping and zagging through the grounds to all the different music stages hoping to catch a few songs from a variety of genres from and from bands I love and a few bands I never heard of. Usually that approach results in interesting and serendipitous moments. 

To wit, here are some observations from opening weekend: 

1. I told my fest-going partner, Dr. Ernie, that I would drink beer only during the daily happy hour, from 4 to 5 p.m. It was nice to pay the discounted $5.50 for a 16-ounce can of Miller Lite or Coors Light in honor of the fest’s 55th anniversary. But that plan had limited effectiveness – inevitably some beers had to be purchased after 5. But at least we switched it up then and bought only different craft beers for the $9 or $10.
2. As I sat on a picnic table along a quiet stretch of waterfront early on the first day, my friend noted my new, relaxed approach to Summerfest. “What do you mean?” I responded. “Sitting and watching is pretty much all I do these days as an official old guy by Summerfest standards.”
3. Right after that, a sketchy character sticks his head out of a roadie’s equipment van and says to my friend and me in a deep and husky, slow monotone voice, “Summerfest is going to be huge.” After he slowly drove away, we looked at each other and burst out laughing: “What the heck was that about!”
4. At 4 p.m. sharp, we turn up at the head of the line at a beer tent, where the attendant is frantically clicking on her pad to get the happy hour prices in there. “I keep trying to refresh it.” After some tense moments, at 4:02, happy hour kicked in. Major crisis averted in Milwaukee.
5. At the 5 p.m. opening ceremony, Summerfest officials said thousands of free tickets would be handed out at the end of the ceremony. (I remember when they passed out cans of Miller Lites and sounded the foghorn – ah, the good old days.) After the ceremony, nobody with free tickets emerged. The crowd was starting to turn. After eight tense minutes, I saw the Milwaukee mayor’s entourage and Summerfest officials leaving, so I approached an official-looking woman and asked, “Did someone forget about the tickets?” She went back in the security gate and a few moments later, a security guy hands me and Dr. Ernie four free tickets each. It pays to grumble.
6. Bush’s Beans were giving away fun koozies that looked just like you were drinking a can of baked beans instead of a Miller Lite. They were a big hit, of course, as well as the special appearance of Duke, the company’s beautiful golden retriever and spokesdog. “Can I pet him?” was the common question of fawning fans who lined up to get their picture with Duke. And just when we joked that it would be a blast if they started giving away beans at a crowded, steamy summer festival, a young woman with a tray of beans in plastic cups appeared. I didn’t turn them down.
7. Speaking of free stuff, the new Frito Legacy Diner featured some samples of Frito Pie, a tasty combination of chili, cheese and the salty snack. They also had some interesting hummus dip topped with pomegranate arils, and a strange dessert concoction with vanilla rice pudding topped with crushed Fritos and mango boba pearls. “This is caviar,” my friend joked. The next day, when we were planning to meet up again, he stressed, “I need to get more of that Frito Pie.”
8. Regarding food, I also vowed not to buy any overpriced food until the next day when special deals on food would occur between noon and 3 p.m. True to my word, the next day I buy a $4 Cousins turkey sub, a $3 sweet corn, a $3 dish of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, and a $3 lemonade. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to buy it all in the same hour.
9. Note to self: Do NOT buy a Power Pass again next year no matter how cheap the special “Flash Sale” is. Two of the three first days I get in for free, so I had no use of the daily admission that comes with the Power Pass. Plus, I have 10 free admission tickets that I already had acquired through other means.
10. I think it’s strange that drivers of new luxury cars like Lexus, BMW, and Audi, park on the few side streets with free parking several blocks from the Summerfest grounds. Can’t they afford the $30 for parking? They need to leave those free spots for people driving their brother’s 2007 Chevy Colbalt that has no air conditioning, no power windows, no power locks, etc. (That would be me!)
11. The new Sound Waves stage wasn’t too popular each time we walked past it. During the day, a few little kids seemed to enjoy bouncing around to the dance music. In the prime evening hours, a few dozen young people tried to groove to the pulsating beat, but it didn’t seem to be all that exciting for those brave souls. And for those of us who remembered some great live shows over the years at the former World Soundstage, it was rather sad to see the demise of a fun live music venue – isn’t live music what Summerfest is all about? If you want recorded music, go to a club. We Baby Boomers had discotheques for that kind of stuff.
12. On a similar note, I also noticed a generational shift, as a group of Millennials gathered in the front rows of a section of the BMO Pavilion and stood during the entire performance of Deer Tick, even though nobody else was standing in any of the seats behind them or anywhere else for that matter. The thirty-somethings continued to block the view of people who sat behind them. They didn’t care. They didn’t even seem to be Deer Tick fans, as they mostly chatted amongst themselves during the show. Another group of Millennials had a reunion in the walkway next to me and cackled away without noticing Deer Tick was playing. An usher finally shooed them away, citing safety concerns. (At this point, you can say, “OK, boomer” as my kids say to me all the time.)
13. We didn’t want to wait in a huge line to see a small intimate acoustic set by the pop star Elle King at the “Insurance House” on the first day, so we waited until everyone was crammed into the place. Somehow we maneuvered our way into front row spaces on the balcony right above the singer. We didn’t have the necessary VIP badge, but nobody kicked us out. After a few incredible songs, Elle talked about her creative inspiration: “Whiskey!”  
14. We also somehow got into the paid section at the BMO Pavilion to see Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets on Saturday night. We did have to move once when the ticketholders showed up, but we lucked out and watched most of the show from the good seats. We didn’t think we should push our luck and stay in that section for Elvis Costello and the Imposters – plus, we needed an overpriced beer.
15. Speaking of the BMO Pavilion, the usual issue of lots of empty seats for each night’s opening band resurfaced. Besides empty seats for the Nick Lowe concert on Saturday, Deer Tick also played to lots of open seats on Friday night. In both cases, fans of those openers weren’t allowed into the front section unless they had tickets to the headliners (Elvis Costello on Saturday and the Avett Brothers on Friday night).  
16. One of the best parts of Summerfest is getting exposed to new artists. I heard some great country music, including from Breland, a country music rising star who gave an energetic performance while name dropping all the country music superstars he has collaborated with. And the next evening I heard a young country artist named Kidd G talk about how he dropped out of high school but wouldn’t recommend it to kids in the audience. I don’t know any Brett Eldredge songs, but I checked him out and he had quite a rowdy crowd. He repeatedly said how much he loves Milwaukee and Summerfest, even reminding the crowd that he was far from a headliner when he first played Summerfest and the 1 p.m. slot.  
17. One problem that has developed with Summerfest trying to book better acts in the daytime under the new Thursday-to-Saturday schedule is an underwhelming crowd for some good shows, particularly on Thursday. This was noticeable at the Big Backyard stage on Thursday, when a good band from Barcelona, La Sra. Tomasa, and a fun Congolese band named Jupiter & Okwess played outstanding shows to very few people. I could just tell by their looks that they were disappointed with the small crowd, especially when after the performances they asked the few remaining fans to get together for a selfie with them.  
18. Another issue I have is with the schedule changes. I went to go see Cheap Trick on Thursday night and wondered if they had turned country. I asked someone next to me if that was Cheap Trick and she said it was Marcus King, who replaced Cheap Trick. When I complained the next day to a woman at the information booth, she said it was announced weeks earlier but it was too late for the schedule booklet, which also was filled with the ever-popular “TBA.” I asked why they don’t have the one-page handouts with the schedule changes any more, and she pointed out that the schedule changes are on a sheet taped to the information table so there would be less wasted paper. “Take a picture of it,” she said. She said the printed daily sheets were just wasted paper. “Those paper sheets would just be all over the ground.” I thought, if that’s the case, then isn’t it much more wasteful to have full schedule booklets that are incorrect and not updated. (I remember years ago they would have an early version of the schedule booklet, then a newer version of it as the fest got ready to open, and then the paper sheets were available each day with last-minute updates. Yes, I guess I could just download the app (OK, boomer), but my phone is out of space. I just cleared out all the videos from Summerfest 2022 to make room for 2023.) Anyway, on Friday, I went to go see the Romantics play. Guess what? They had been replaced. I really do need to make a mental note to stop by the information booth each day to see what changes were made to the out-of-date brochure schedule.
19. One new band I stumbled across on Friday is called Bad Skin. Four energetic young French-speaking women from Montreal who really seemed to be enjoying performing at Summerfest. Hours later, I saw them near the Brew City Wrestling show. “You were great,” I enthusiastically told them and they seemed overjoyed that people recognized them. When I forgot to get my own selfie with them, I went back a minute later to find them but they had disappeared into the crowd.
20. I also had the bands I had planned to see. I always read all the recommendations from music critics and media as I mark out my calendar. I put Buddy Guy, Mindi Abair, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on that list. My daughter’s cat is named Mr. Bojangles, (the humane society had listed his name as that when my daughter found him), so I obviously had to see the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band perform that song. They didn’t disappoint, although they could have dedicated it to all cats named Mr. Bojangles.
21. Is it just me, or do the fenced-off sections in front of the stages seem to be expanding ever outward. Nice for people with disabilities, of course, but also super nice for VIPs. Summerfest needs to be careful not to create a two-tiered access system – it seems like the regular diehard fans are being pushed ever farther away from the front row.  
22. I watched a few golfers try to win $5,000 for a hole-in-one. Three balls for $10 to get a chance to drive them 145 yards across the water to the pin.  Two guys wearing hard hats were in a small boat scooping up all the floating balls that didn’t quite make it across to the small green. A worker called out to them and said the players would start hitting the balls again so they needed to move out of the way. “They can’t hit us,” one yelled back. The worker then turned to the spectators and noted, “They got hit yesterday.”