Given how much could go wrong at Summerfest, it’s remarkable that more doesn’t. Every day for the better part of two weeks Summerfest opens its gates to tens of thousands of people, and in 2018 the festival made it look even easier than usual, with no major hiccups or blunders. The festival just seemed in the zone this year. No matter what obstacle the world tossed at it—heat waves, thunder storms, the world’s worst-timed presidential visit—the festival kept chugging along smoothly. Even when major headliners GoldLink and Bebe Rexha dropped out near the last minute, the organizers whipped up replacements for them like it was no big deal.
We’re impressed—though, as always, we have some quibbles, too. Here are eight takeaways from this year’s amazingly well-oiled festival.
A Lineup to Remember
Each year the festival reveals the bulk of its headliners in one big swoop, and it’s always impressive seeing dozens of bold-face names presented together like that. Unlike most music festivals, though, Summerfest isn’t just three-day long weekend event; it’s an 11 day marathon, and even the most loaded lineup can feel stretched thin over such a long stretch. We’re happy to report that this year that wasn’t a problem. There was more than enough talent to go around each night. It didn’t hurt that, instead of leaning hard on returning acts, this year’s lineup was unusually rich with first-timers, among them Janelle Monáe, The Weeknd, Arcade Fire, Lil Uzi Vert and Kesha, all of whom delivered buzz-worthy sets.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
Balancing crowd sizes has sometimes been a struggle for Summerfest. The festival’s business depends on drawing big numbers, of course, but if the crowds get too huge or unruly, especially after dark, the event becomes miserable. We don’t know the final attendance figures for this year yet, but it sure feels like the festival hit a sweet spot, drawing consistently large yet manageable crowds, without any of the frightening crushes the festival has dealt with some years.
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Welcome Improvements
Summerfest patrons come out for the music and the revelry, not the amenities. Nevertheless it’s been nice to see the festival systematically upgrade its grounds stage by stage over the last few years. This year the festival gave its cramped U.S. Cellular Connection stage a much-needed makeover and added a cozy Klement’s beer garden area that offered a green respite from all the concrete surrounding it. Those upgrades make a difference: The north side of the festival grounds no longer makes attendees feel like they somehow accidentally wandered into a much sadder festival.
The BMO Harris Pavilion’s Ticketing System is Still Awful
Speaking of upgrades, when Summerfest’s otherwise fantastic BMO Harris Pavilion stage opened in 2012, there was some confusion about how its semi-reserved seating system and “blue circle seat passes” worked. Six years later, there’s still confusion. It’s an awful system. Having a finite amount of reserved seats is convoluted and cuts against the democratic, first-come, first-seated spirit of the festival. It also creates an ugly spectacle of security personnel endlessly turning away and booting patrons from perfectly good unused seat. Those reserved seats must be nice for those who nab them, but they sour the experience for everybody else.
It’s Time Summerfest Seriously Embraced Biking
Cyclists riding to Summerfest are greeted by plenty of snarling signs telling them where not to lock their bikes, but not a lot of actual places to lock them. The bike parking areas available are too small and too few, which is a problem for a festival plagued by traffic backups. A festival this size should be encouraging alternate transportation any way it can. This is one thing Summerfest could learn from the annual Rock The Green festival, which actively campaigns to encourage biking and even offers a free bike valet. An admissions promotion for cyclists (the festival already has one for just about everything else) would also help reinforce the message that attendees should leave their cars at home.
Who Needs a Local Stage?
Once again this year, Summerfest operated without a designated Milwaukee music stage, and once again it was no worse for it. Instead, local acts were featured throughout the entire lineup, with artists like B~Free, Vincent VanGREAT, Reyna and Trapper Schoepp enjoying plum spots opening for likeminded headliners on big stages. There’s still one big ceiling for local musicians to crack, though: It’s been ages since a Milwaukee artist headlined a main stage in a 10 p.m. slot. It’ll be huge news when one finally does.
More Rap, Please
Summerfest isn’t as timid about booking rap as it was a decade or so ago, when a certain dog-whistling radio host would try to turn even the most innocuous rap booking into a P.R. headache for the festival. But even now the festival is still a little stingy with its rap bookings, and the amount of rap acts Summerfest brings in isn't nearly commensurate with the genre’s popularity. As the enormous crowd for this year’s Lil Uzi Vert performance demonstrated, there’s a tremendous demand for these shows.
Scaling Up Without Pricing Out
A final note of appreciation: As Summerfest has tried to court music fans beyond the city with more aggressive promotion and more prestigious bookings, it’s done so without betraying its roots as a festival for the entire city. Despite its ever-improving amenities and lineup, the festival still held its general admission prices to a reasonable $21, while offering some form of free admission nearly every day for guests who put in a bare minimum of effort. The festival deserves applause for leveling up without pricing out the masses.
Read more of our Summerfest coverage, including picks, previews and reviews, here.
