As we enter Memorial Day weekend, Milwaukee’s summer festival schedule is really starting to take shape. Though there seems to be more going on in and around the city than ever before, one Milwaukee-area happening almost certainly won’t be returning in 2025. Following its first installment in the region last summer, it appears as if Phase Fest was just a phase.
Not Just A Phase Festival—also referred to as “Phase Fest”—made its Wisconsin debut in nearby Franklin on June 23, 2024. The inaugural Wisconsin event, which started in Kansas City in 2023 before adding a stop at Franklin Field in 2024, was a day-long emo and pop-punk music festival that featured performances by The Used, Story Of The Year, Senses Fail, 3OH!3, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
The event reportedly brought just shy of 6,000 people to the Ballpark Commons. However, the 2024 edition also elicited a variety of complaints from Franklin residents regarding noise and a profanity. Despite messaging on the Phase Fest Milwaukee website and on social media that hinted at a return in 2025, no metro Milwaukee date has been announced at this time. Meanwhile, the third annual Phase Fest in Kansas City is scheduled to take place on June 20 and its full schedule has been released.
This week, Milwaukee Record reached out to Social House Entertainment—a Kansas City-based company that produces large scale events including Phase Fest and Tacos And Tequila Festival—to inquire about the status of this year’s Phase Fest in Wisconsin. According to an email response from an unidentified Social House Entertainment representative, the return to Franklin Field is “unlikely” to occur. Here’s the statement:
“We’re unfortunately not having a Not Just A Phase Festival in the Milwaukee area at the moment this year. If anything changes, we will post an announcement, but at the moment, it is unlikely, as all festival dates are final.”
Though Not Just A Phase Festival Milwaukee doesn’t seem to be in the cards this year, Social House Entertainment’s annual Tacos And Tequila Festival is scheduled to return to Franklin Field for the third time on Saturday, September 13. This year’s performers include Lil Jon, Timbaland, B.O.B, Trick Daddy, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Yung Joc, and DJ Ashton Martin. Tickets are on sale now.