For Milwaukee Record, much of our Summerfest coverage is stuff we must do in advance of the festival. There’s releasing (then organizing and continually updating) the lineup, finding all the local talent playing the festival, penning retrospectives of exceptional shows from previous Big Gigs, highlighting some standout performers playing each weekend, and reminding you of ways to get into Summerfest for free.
By the time the nine-day, three-weekend festival actually starts (and we’ve eaten some of the new foods), we pretty much just need to go whenever we can and experience…something to write about. Though I feel as if my baked beans bucket hat review from Weekend 1 is more than enough to justify my festival credential for the rest of my career, it’s technically also my turn to recap Weekend 2. The only problem is I didn’t know what angle to take with my recap. Honestly, I was thinking I’d do an all-local theme, but Matt already did that last week.
Instead, I decided I would simply just wing it. I’d show up when I wanted, stay as long as I wanted, and not be beholden to seeing or doing anything I didn’t want to see or do. After all, I’m one of the owners of this here site, we collectively have already put in a lot of Summerfest-related work before Summerfest actually started and in the early-going, and—I repeat and cannot emphasize this enough—I had literally no other/better ideas. So here are some things I did, saw, ate, and enjoyed during Summerfest’s second weekend.
THURSDAY
• Weekend 1 was all about reviewing new foods and waiting in line for a bean hat, so upon entering Summerfest’s south gate on Thursday, I immediately ordered MY favorite Summerfest food (suck it, Saz’s platter). The Major Cheeseburger from Major Goolsby’s that you see at the top of the article is $14 (plus tax, hidden card processing fee nobody ever talks about, and “the little question the tablet is going to ask you”) but it’s so worth it. I wolfed it down while listening to someone play a downtrodden rendition of “Beer” by Reel Big Fish at the Brigg’s Stage. Both the song and the burger ruled.
• The reason I initially wanted to go with the local angle for my weekend recap is because, well, the second weekend (especially Thursday) was loaded with a wide and undeniably awesome swath of Milwaukee musicians. After I followed the Reel Big Fish cover guy’s advice and “had myself a beer” for $5 at the Lakefront tent thanks to Throwback Thursday pricing from 12-6 p.m., I caught portions of Lost Orange Cat at Uline Warehouse, followed by the end of Valley Fox (my first time seeing them live, which I thoroughly enjoyed) at the Johnsonville Stage, a 15-minute chunk of Avenues at the Miller Lite Oasis, a little bit of Brett Newski & The Bad Inventions (featuring Chris Haise on keys and Newski’s frighteningly good between-song impersonation of Butthead) back the the Uline Warehouse.
• Between local stops, I hit the bathroom and heard a Summerfest worker singing “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis. The world is indeed a stage.
• Now a master line-waiter-inner, I hopped in a cue on my way to see The Quilz so I could snag a free mini ice cream sandwich, a piece of sun-warmed turkey, and a can koozie from a business I had never heard of.
• Wanting to get some steps in so I could at least partially offset the burger, beers (now plural), and mini ice cream sando and also see as much good local stuff as possible, I caught part of The Quilz and The Driveway Thriftdwellers on opposite ends of the grounds. To break up the walk, I stopped by the Lilliput Records tent in the marketplace to catch up with co-owner Tanner Musgrove for a bit.
• At 4 p.m., I got a front row seat to watch HOSTS at the BMO Pavilion. After catching about half of their set (a great mix of old and new material), I ventured over to the Aurora Pavilion to see Wildered. They talked about how they had “moved up the ramp” from the Tiki Hut Stage directly behind the Aurora Pavilion, which they played last year. They sounded album-caliber and the crowd was eating it up. I was also happy to learn Milwaukee music mainstay Zach Pietrini now plays bass in the band.
• As everyone else in the city of Milwaukee was now starting to arrive in order to get a spot for that night’s DEVO show, I was preparing to leave the grounds. However, I finished up my impromptu all-local day (with a few food and beer stops along the way) by catching part of Mike Mangione‘s first set at the Johnsonville Stage. It was a fitting end to a low key, but quietly very nice Thursday afternoon/early evening at the grounds. No, I didn’t see DEVO and, no, I don’t regret it even a little. I’m glad you liked it, though.
FRIDAY
• I didn’t go. Sorry, but I can’t devote every Friday and Saturday of three summer weekends to Summerfest. Maybe instead of monopolizing three early summer weekends, Summerfest should consider some type of 11-day format that only takes up two full weekends. Sounds just crazy enough to work for more than 50 years!
SATURDAY
• After walking to Summerfest from the bus stop and grabbing a beer inside, I decided it was finally time to try the catfish meal from Nino’s Southern Sides, a long-running local comfort food establishment and a Shorewood mainstay that is new to the Summerfest grounds this year. It was wonderful and the mac and cheese would a hit as well. I honestly might get it again next Friday. Paging Caleb Westphal…
• As I finished my meal, I met up with a friend and we found ourselves basically caught up in a parade that was sauntering down the main drag. All these years later, those gigantic puppets still kind of give me the creeps.
• This dragon was pretty cool though.
• Eventually, other friends and my girlfriend joined up. With all due respect to those who performed on Saturday, we all agreed there wasn’t really anyone we needed to see on that day’s lineup. Still, I wound up catching/enjoying portions of sets by the likes of Tall Tall Trees (a self-described purveyor of “psychedelic banjo music”), Wire & Nail, MT Twins, Molly Tuttle, and a super fun funk outfit called Dumpstaphunk before heading home early and calling it a weekend at Summerfest. Two down and one to go. Let’s make it count, Milwaukee!
Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Hey! Here’s the 2025 Summerfest lineup!
• A guide to Milwaukee acts playing Summerfest
• We tried 10 new food/drink items at Summerfest (2025 edition)
• Summerfest will transform South Party Pavilion into country-themed Lasso Lounge
• Here are Summerfest’s “get in free” admission promotions for 2025