It’s back, and it’s bluer than ever – Riverwest Blueberry Fest will return for its second year on Saturday, July 18 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at 808 E. Chambers St. The free festival will host local vendors, activities, live music and a whole lot of blueberries.
Hosted by four women-owned Riverwest businesses – eclectic lifestyle shop Ebb & Flow Design Co., bakery Seven Swans Creperie, vintage store The Polish Flat and art studio Eucalyptus & Co. – the celebration first started in 2025.
“It started off small and escalated into much larger than we expected,” says Claire Osterman of Ebb & Flow. “One purpose is to embody all that Riverwest has to give and to involve everyone. It’s such a unique festival for Milwaukee – it’s about a cute fruit! The theme is meant to be exciting and bring people together.”
Osterman says the niche festival earned a great reception its first year, even as rain dampened the scene. It was “chaos and feral blueberry energy,” Osterman says. Hoards of people attended dressed in blue (Celeste Carroll of The Polish Flat noted that many dogs were even dressed to-theme), local businesses found unique ways to “involve blueberries in every facet,” and the block was alight with Riverwest’s charm.
This year’s event will see more than 50 local vendors on site, with a plethora of blueberry-themed food, drink and goods.
Here are five insider-recommended things to check out at the second annual Blueberry Fest:
Experience an unforgettable evening celebrating great design!
Grab a Blueberry Treat (and Some Actual Blueberries)
As you might imagine, Blueberry Fest will suffer no lack of blueberries. The many food and drink vendors will all offer options that stick with the blueberry theme. Carroll recommends starting the day with a carton of farm fresh blueberries from Steffen Orchards – a Fort Atkinson family-owned blueberry and cherry orchard that will be selling fresh blueberries, along with blueberry doughnuts and baked goods.
“We’re super excited because you don’t see fresh blueberries as good as this very often,” Carroll says.
Blueberries will be incorporated into speciality-made treats galore. Seven Swans Creperie, one of the organizers of the fest, will have an outdoor kitchen making blueberry pancakes and crepes. SPRED will offer custom blueberry jams and jellies, and Baked from Nyhart will sell blue, natural-dyed macarons filled with fresh-picked blueberry buttercream.
No sweet tooth? No problem. For the unexpected savory side of blueberries, Osterman recommends Off-Center Sausage Company’s blueberry-infused sausages.
Try Specialty-Made Blueberry Beer
Amorphic Beer, a Riverwest taproom, brewed a special beer for the festival. Appropriately called “This is My Blueberry Face,” it’s a purple hazy IPA. Amorphic was serious about the natural flavor – the brew was crafted using 400 pounds of blueberries during fermentation. (Plus, the festival organizers designed the custom label.)
The brew will be sold in Amorphic’s beer tent during the event. It is also already available pre-fest at certain retailers, including the Milwaukee Public Market’s Thief Wine, and will be available post-fest as long as supplies last.
Shop Local Vendors
The four Riverwest businesses that organized the event will all be vending: Ebb & Flow, Seven Swans, The Polish Flat and Eucalyptus & Co. But they also hand-selected a group of more than 50 others to join them. The organizers shared just a few examples:
Persika Design Co., a Milwaukee art studio specializing in multiple mediums, will sell art prints and blueberry goodies. Additionally, Paper Leaf Creative will bring a special linoprint blueberry design, and Neely Ceramics will have realistic-looking blueberries to take home as decor. Osterman recommends The Fruity Studio – a very on-theme business name – which will have a charm bar along with other jewelry and arts that include blueberries and other variety fruits.
Even curators – including Lowwstock Vintage and Libby Lu’s Closet – will stick to the central thesis, offering blueberry-themed vintage goods and blue clothing in addition to their normal selection.
Check out the Photo Ops
There will be many opportunities to visually memorialize the second annual Blueberry Fest. Last year, the organizers painted a giant basket of blueberries with face cutouts for fun photos. The backdrop will make its return this year, but with a few photo opp friends – the organizers claimed the goal is “much more decorations than last year.”
To achieve this, they are personally making a large blue backdrop out of recycled materials and fabrics, as well as blue paper chains. Milwaukee-based artist Mariah Rayne will be crafting giant paper mache blueberries, as well.
Amber Asher, a Milwaukee photographer, will even be taking tintype – a historical photography method – pictures of festival-goers.
Get Crafty
This year’s festival brings artsy activities for all ages, and everything is berry on-theme. (Sorry, we had to.)
Riverwest creative reuse artist Lauren Groose will bring a DIY print experience with multiple options of hand-carved blueberry stamps. Keeping with the do-it-yourself spirit, Festive Fantasmas, a Milwaukee-based junk journal club, will offer blueberry-themed “scrap packs” for attendees to craft collages (and they’ll have a photo booth). Plus, there’s no shortage of novelty experiences with Tarot Damore offering tarot readings and Artifacts by Aura doing live illustrations.
For folks with kids, you’ll find face painting by local artist Ladasia Bryant, and Casita Prado – a sustainable kids streetwear brand – will offer a variety of crafts for children.
Bonus: Immortalize Blueberry Fest Forever?
Madalyn Carlson, a hand-poke tattoo artist, will offer pre-drawn flash blueberry tattoos. If you dare to permanently ink a blueb’ on, it’ll definitely be a day you won’t forget!
