I came home from work on Friday afternoon and my downstairs neighbor lady was sitting on the lawn, enjoying the sunshine. She smiled when I walked up and said "you're home early."
"Yeah," I said, "my agency does 'summer Fridays' so I get off early every Friday til Labor Day."
"Wow, that's nice! … You know, from my experience living other places, I can see that Milwaukee just does summer. In a big way."
I liked the way she put it: that Milwaukee does summer. It's so true – the city just comes alive and has such a huge buzz about it in the summertime.
I think when you live in a place where it's cold six months out of year, you appreciate summer ten times more than other people do!
Milwaukee kicked off summer with its first festival this past weekend. Riversplash was held in Pere Marquette Park and along Water Street Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Ten stages featured more than 40 bands, and there were street performers, booths selling jewelry and other random things, food, and - of course - plenty of beer.
Dave and I spent a couple of hours down at the fest on Saturday night, eating a little, drinking a little, listening to some music and watching all the people around us. After doing a lap through the fest, we settled in to listen to a great two-man cover band for awhile. I didn't catch their name - after two drinks I no longer had my "blogger cap" on - but Dave said he's heard them play a few times at Buckhead Saloon in the past. Nothing says summer to me quite like enjoying an ice cold drink while listening to live music under the warm evening sky. That part was great.
We didn't stay too late, though ...
As far as festivals go, Riversplash was fine. As far as Milwaukee festivals go, however, it wasn't quite what I expected. For a city that does festivals the way Milwaukee does, this one, despite being in a primo location on the river and being the first of the summer, wasn't as enjoyable as I'd hoped. The food vendors were quite limited and the crowd was among the roughest I've seen.
To be fair, we did go at kind of a lame time of day - between 6:30 and about 9:00 - but still, I have much higher hopes for Bastille Days, Summerfest, and all the other summer festivals that are coming up.
Riversplash just seems like an extension of Water Street bars... how much fun can that be? Frat boy fun isn’t for everyone I guess...
Posted by: Nick | June 07, 2006 at 07:08 AM
Very well put, Nick. I'm not into the Water Street scene so that's probably why Riversplash just didn't do it for me.
Posted by: Erin | June 07, 2006 at 08:11 AM
Did you notice that you took a picture of Mark Borchardt (American Movie, Coven) at the picnic table in the third picture?
"Do you know what cathartic means?"
"No."
Posted by: Andre | June 07, 2006 at 09:19 AM
Andre! Dave is going to be so excited that you pointed that out. We walked past him and Dave said "That's Mark Borchardt, the guy who did American Movie."
I had no idea who that was but Dave kept insisting. Now he has validation. Thanks!
Posted by: Erin | June 07, 2006 at 09:46 AM
I was at Riversplash on Friday night and it was great. And I'm not into the Water Street scene either. You really need to stay past 9:00pm - come on!
There's another great party this Sunday near your house - the Locust Street Festival. Come for the Beer Run at least.
http://www.locust-street.com/locuststreetfestival.htm
Posted by: Alba | June 07, 2006 at 10:08 AM
That group is called "Man Down" (http://www.mandownjams.com/) and they were great! Kirsten and I watched them for like an hour. I can't believe I'm not in your pictures because we saw those same people dancing!
Posted by: Derek | June 07, 2006 at 11:12 AM
Alba, I admitted that we were there at a lame time! But we were ready to go - and we didn't want to spend any more money we didn't have on more drinks! To each their own ... I'm glad you had fun.
Thanks for the info on Locust Street Festival, too. I'll have to alert people to that - though I don't think I'll be able to go.
And Derek, thanks for letting us know who those guys were! They were really fun to listen to. That's funny that you saw those same people. I was concerned for that older blonde woman! But boy, was she entertaining!!
Posted by: Erin | June 07, 2006 at 11:17 AM
I'm with Alba, I hate the Water Street crowd, but I love Riversplash. It is free to go and beers are reasonably-priced. And I like that it is on the city streets.
It also has one of the best firework shows of the summer. The ones on Friday weren't great, and I missed the ones on Saturday, but in years past they have fireworks going off of the State and Kilbourn bridges criss-crossing each other over the river.
Posted by: karl | June 07, 2006 at 08:10 PM