Summerfest.
By on June 21st, 2007
You’re on a bus. Sometimes it’s the classic big yellow.
Sometimes it’s a coach.
You’re drunk, and this is to be expected. In fact, for the last hour and a half, you’ve been slamming beers and pounding shots, knowing the alcoholic buzz you are working toward has to last you all night.
You’re wide eyed and a little wild. You’re still drinking, but you’re also observing and pondering. You’re observing the diversified group of people with whom you are sharing this public transportation, and you are pondering the numerous choices of different entertainment that await you upon destination. You can’t help but have a “Wonder Years” moment. A narrator in your head wisely says, “I can’t help but be in awe of this bus and event. While living in one of the most diverse and gang populated cities in the United States (the Latin Kings currently most prominent), this single event has the unique power to strip individuals of their differences and connect them with one single event.” The “Wonder Years” moment passes, and you shotgun another beer and pretend to be interested in the girl next to you.
The bus travels down I94, which turns into 894. It passes the state fair grounds, Miller Park, the Pabst Brewery, and Marquette University. It’s destination is downtown, across from the art museum shaped like a yacht
and on the lake front (Lake Michigan). You exit the bus, thirteen dollar ticket in hand, and make your way toward the front gates. Walking casually to one of the sides, you slip a water bottle of Admirals Rum through the fence, to be picked up later. At the gates, your ticket is scanned, your body felt up and your inhibitions let go. You breathe a sigh of relief and thank God you live in Milwaukee. You’re at Summerfest, the largest outdoor music festival in the United States.
There is no other event in the Milwaukee summer that works harder to draw it’s city population together, and rightly so. Before, during, and after the music festival, the city of Milwaukee holds numerous festivals meant to highlight the differences of its people. Two weeks ago, the Pride festival (The Gay and Lesbian community festival) was held. This weekend, Polish Fest will begin. During Summerfest, the annual Italian Fest will be held, which culminates into a fireworks display at the end of the night. After Summerfest, German Fest will delight the area’s schnitzel lovers.
While those events clearly celebrate diversity, Summerfest crams all of those different groups in front of music stages and forces them to accept the fact that they all like the same music. They all sing along to the same songs and they all secretly want to be rock stars. They are all connected to the universal language: music. I think Stevie Wonder said it best when he stated, “Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.” Whether the people of the city like each other or not, it doesn’t matter as long as they each like a certain performer or group.
Every year when Talib Kweli performs (like he will again this year) blacks and whites can each be seen standing side by side, hands in the air either mouthing the ill verses or face to face spitting the rhymes as quick as their novice wannabe abilities will allow. As Roger Waters picks the beginning riff of “Wish You Were Here,” the generally richer conservatives of Brookfield will stand arm and arm with the poorer, “white trash” kids of ‘Stallis (West Allis) and believe that they truly are two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year…
Summerfest is the time of the summer when Milwaukee shows it’s true colors. It’s the time when the city can say “Up Yours” to Chicago and laugh even harder because today (Wednesday), the Brewers took a 7 game lead in the NL Central over the Cubs. It’s the time when everyone is hung over and cursing the heavens at work if only in an attempt to make the day go faster so they can hurry downtown, drink themselves into a frenzied stupor, scream for some band, drag their ass home and do the whole thing over again the next day. It’s the time when it’s okay to say you like Nickelback if you’re drunk, because no one remembers it the next day, and it’s the time to realize that while you may not know the people next to you, for the 45 minutes to an hour the band plays, you are all the same. You are all human beings.
*For the next few weeks, my posts will be strictly Summerfest. I will have interviews with certain performers, eye witness accounts of the festival, and much more. Tune in for all the exciting action (insert unnecessary exclamation point).
Summerfest begins June 28th and lasts until July 8th. Here is the music lineup as posted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=605313
Here are the acts I am most excited for:
Femi Kuti, Spoon, Talib Kweli, Weird Al Yankovic, Lewis Black, Lupe Fiasco, and Buddy Guy.
Word of the Week: Pertinacious: 1: adhering resolutely to an opinion or purpose. 2: stubbornly unyielding or tenacious. Example: Although Rusted Root, Peter Frampton, and John Mayer were playing at the same time, Nathan was pertinacious about seeing Spoon perform.
YouTube Video of the Week: My Lipgloss be cool, my lipgloss be poppin’ … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt_QNoKlXwU
Worst thing about Facebook Ever (Note: Worst thing about Facebook Ever changes weekly): The notifications bar that appears on your homepage. I’m sorry, but if you’re too lazy to actually look at your own profile and/or inbox to see if you have a wall post or message, you should probably just lie in bed and never get out, because if you’re too lazy for Facebook, you’re clearly too lazy for life.
- Lates
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