That cancellation freed up a primeweekend for Summerfest officials to launch an event they'd long discussed: analternative music festival at the Henry Maier Festival grounds.
“We had been talking about doing an event like thisfor a couple years,” Summerfest Entertainment Director Bob Babisch said of thenew, two-day Verge Music Festival. “When RiverSplash announced its end, we sawa great chance to kick off the festival that weekend.”
Summerfest partnered with alternative-rock stationFM 102.1 to book a lineup more overtly catered to younger rock fans than Summerfest'sflagship 11-day festival.
“Sometimes people complain thatSummerfest doesn't offer enough alternative music, so we wanted to create afestival that focused just on alternative and indie-leaning bands,” Babischsaid.
“We wanted to start small, so it's onlyon three stages, instead of the whole Summerfest grounds,” Babisch explained.“We also wanted to keep the ticket prices very low. Tickets are $25 in advancefor one day, or $40 for two days, and included with each day's admission is a freeSummerfest ticket.”
Having initially considered a falllaunch for the event before the first weekend of June suddenly opened up inRiverSplash's wake, Verge organizers had only several months to secure thefinal lineup.
“That's not a lot of time when you're trying todevelop a festival with no name, especially since there were other festivalscompeting to book the same acts that weekend, ” says FM 102.1 Program DirectorJacent Jackson. “With so little time to plan for the event, it almost feelslike a dress rehearsal.”
Verge's Saturday, June 5 lineup pairsalternative radio staples Weezer and AFI with more independent-leaning bandslike Rogue Wave and The Raveonettes, as well as bands that split the differencebetween the two sensibilities, like Cold War Kids and Manchester Orchestra.
The Friday, June 4 lineup is a littlemore lopsided, favoring heavier modern-rock bands. She & Him, the precioussoft-pop duo of actress Zooey Deschanel and indie-folk musician M. Ward, sticksout considerably sandwiched on the bill between hard-rockers Three Days Graceand Eagles of Death Metal.
“I would have liked to have seen the lineup offer alittle better balance between indie-rock and modern-rock,” Jackson concedes, but he notes that Vergestill offers a better mix than similar festivals in other cities. Forcomparison, Chicago'salternative station Q101 is sponsoring a daylong concert on June 5 dominatedalmost exclusively by the hardest and hairiest of radio-rock bands, likeSeether, Papa Roach, Saliva and Puddle of Mudd. Zooey Deschanel won't be goinganywhere near that one.
And where similar festivals largely exclude localmusic, Verge will showcase a nice sampling of Milwaukee artists, including rockbands Red Knife Lottery, Revision Text, Jaill, Invade Rome and 1956; rootsiergroups Juniper Tar, The Championship and The Wildbirds; and for good measure anaccordionist (Pezzettino) and a hip-hop outfit (Figureheads).
“For a festival coming out of thegates in its first year, to my eyes the lineup looks OK,” Jackson said. “Whenever you do something likethis for the first time, you learn very quickly where the traps are, so tospeak, and it's going to make you an awful lot better at putting the eventtogether the next year. A festival like this can really provide some greattalent at a value price, and I think next year's will be even better.”
That begs the question, can the upstartfestival make it to a second year? That will depend largely on this year'sattendance.
Babisch said that advance ticket sales have been“good, so far,” and that Summerfest hopes Verge will become an annualtradition.
“We're excited to just keep building onit throughout the years,” he said.
Verge Music Festival Schedule
Friday, June4
5 p.m. Red Knife Lottery
5:15 p.m. The Wildbirds
5:30 p.m. Kink Ador
6 p.m. Nico Vega
6:30 p.m. The Championship
6:45 p.m. Loyal Divide
7:15 p.m. Crash Kings
7:45 p.m. Reni Lane
8 p.m. Empires
8:30 p.m. Eagles of Death Metal
9 p.m. She & Him
9:15 p.m. 1956
10 p.m. Three Days Grace
Saturday,June 5
2 p.m. Locksley
2:45 p.m. Juniper Tar
3 p.m. Figureheads
3:30 p.m. ManchesterOrchestra
4:15 p.m. Violetness
4:30 p.m. Geri X
5 p.m. The Raveonettes
5:45 p.m. Scarlet Grey
6 p.m. Invade Rome
6:30 p.m. Cold War Kids
7:15 p.m. Pezzettino
7:30 p.m. Jaill
8 p.m. AFI
9 p.m. Revision Text
9 p.m. Rogue Wave
10 p.m. Weezer
