Summerfest

So as many of you know, this is the time of year for Summerfest in Milwaukee. Summerfest is considered the largest music festival in the world, and like everything else, it has mixed opinions from the locals.

According to the local media, Saturday night Summerfest reached capacity, and due to the influx of people at the gates last night, people were "allowed" in for free. What my sources have reveiled to me, ticket buyers were waiting in line for over 45 minutes, and were not allowed in at the gate, and started jumping the gate anyway. This is the first I've ever heard of a situation like this arising. For the most part the festival goes fairly smooth, and yeah there will be a fight here and there occasionally, but this happens at just about any festival type situation.

I personally wasn't at Summerfest on Saturday, but was attending a local block party called Pabst Fest here in Bay View, then went to support a local punk show at The Down & Over Pub. That being said, I do plan on attending Summerfest at least once this year, and will probably go more than once.

As a resident of Milwaukee, I know plenty of people who refuse to go to Summerfest. Some call it "Bummerfest" and other colorful names, and have a real fear of the festivities. Admittedly, I feel their system of having shitty cover bands play during the day is lame, and probably illegal, but that's just my feeling. I guess it kinda makes sense to try to have safer music for the day crowds when considering the large amounts of children at the festival during the day, but there are plenty of local bands that would be willing to play family friendly originals for the day crowds of Summerfest. Seemingly the largest percentage of attendees there are what I refer to as suburbanites. Many of the Summerfest goers are people who come in from the suburbs, act like they're high society, and are a bit of a drain on the event. The thing to keep in mind though, is the fact that the event brings revenue to the Milwaukee area.

Even though the headliners play at the Marcus Amphitheater, you can still see some great national acts in the general stages (the stages that are included with the standard ticket for admission). These bands aren't just the B bands that are touring the state and county fair circuit or casinos. These are bands that are actually still relevant, as well as some of them nostalgic bands that are around in some form.