We Cannot Wait for Summerfest 2021!
Welcome back to Milwaukee’s Summerfest
The 75 acre Henry Maier Festival Park, located in Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan, is the place to see over 800 bands perform on 11 stages over three long weekends this September. This is an opportunity for families, friends, and music fans to enjoy a variety of music genres and eat some of the best festival food Wisconsin offers. And there is always quite a selection of beer and non-alcoholic beverages to choose from. There is a children’s stage and park with a playground, a sports zone featuring many different sports, ten ground stages, plus the amphitheater. The location is also super easy to access by public transportation or your own vehicle as parking lots are plentiful. Many bands, dates, and time slots are still in the works but the majority of the headliners have been announced. Summerfest does a great job booking fantastic local, regional, and national bands.
Tickets Available Here!
Date Change
The 2021 dates for Summerfest are in September: 02 – 04, 09 -11, and 16 -18, a big move from the usual end of June into early July, which of course is due to COVID. Many of us missed our annual Summerfest in 2020 and we are thrilled to return to our best live music festival regardless of the change in dates.
Bonus Wednesday Nights
As an additional bonus, Summerfest has added Wednesday night headliners at American Family Insurance Amphitheater. The Hella Mega Tour, featuring Green Day, Fallout Boy, and Weezer, make their Milwaukee Summerfest start on 09/01.
https://greenday.com/, https://falloutboy.com/,https://weezer.com/
The Jonas Brothers, with their recently released “Remember This” song for the Olympics in Tokyo and the theme of their tour, perform on 09/08. Both Kelsea Ballerini and Spencer Sutherland are the openers.
https://jonasbrothers.com/, https://www.kelseaballerini.com, https://www.spencersutherland.com/
The final Wednesday night performance, on 09/15/21, is Dave Matthews Band. As Dave fans know, each show is unique, full of surprises from the band’s extensive catalog and cover songs, all of which are part of the sensual magical experience of seeing Dave Matthews Band live.
Summerfest American Family Insurance Amphitheater Headliners
Seating capacity is 23,000, of which 16,200 seats are reserved and 6,800 are general admission on the lawn. The sound is pretty fantastic regardless of where one sits.
The Five-Time Entertainer of the Year award recipient, Luke Bryan, brings his “Proud to Be Here” tour with Dylan Scott opening, on 09/02. By the time of this show, we will have seen Luke’s “Dirty Road Diary” documentary, which premieres 08/06/21 on IMDb TV. Shutter 16 congratulates Dylan with his recent 2021 Country Music Television’s (CMT) Breakthrough Video of the Year Award for ‘Nobody!’
https://www.lukebryan.com/home, https://dylanscottcountry.com/
A Chicago and Milwaukee favorite, Chance the Rapper, dropped a video for his deep song ‘The Heart & The Tongue,’ headlines on 09/03.
https://www.chanceraps.com/
Opening for him are 24KGoldn, https://24kgoldn.com/and Teezo Touchdown. I don’t know about you but after checking out the music of Teezo Touchdown I became a fan.
Twenty One Pilots, who released their sixth studio album, “Scaled and Icy” on 05/21/21, will be headlining on 09/04/21. This will be their first concert since 12/13/19. Here’s ‘Good Day’ from their new album.
Chris Stapleton and Sheryl Crow perform on 09/09. Both have so many greatest hit songs to add to their sets and we are hopeful to see them perform together as they did in ‘Tell Me When It’s Over.’
https://www.chrisstapleton.com/, https://sherylcrow.com/
Zac Brown Band’s “Comeback Tour,” with Gabby Barrett opening, makes their headlining stop on 09/10. There is more new music from Zac Brown Band underway, as they recently dropped a new song ‘Same Boat’ which provides a great message for less judging and more unity.https://zacbrownband.com/, https://www.gabbybarrett.com/
Milwaukee’s favorite, Dave Chappelle, takes the stage on 09/11. Shutter 16 really cannot think of a more hilarious comedian to share his thought-provoking humor at Summerfest, since the infamous 1972 show by the late George Carlin, which ended with his arrest due to his “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television.” Of course, the disorderly conduct charges were dropped only after quite a bit of free publicity via media exposure for Carlin and Summerfest. Thankfully it’s 49 years later and Dave knows how to keep Milwaukee’s attention while making everyone laugh.
https://www.instagram.com/davechappelle
Polo G opens for Megan Thee Stallion on 09/16 and fans are really looking forward to seeing what Megan Thee Stallion has in store for us, after her infamous Grammy performance with her unashamed sexual power, also seen in her latest ‘Thot Shit’ video.
https://megantheestallion.com/, https://www.polocapalot.com/
The Kid LAROI opens for Miley Cyrus on 09/17, and she sure can sign across a variety of genres, and she does such a brilliant cover of ‘Zombie,’ which is on her latest “Plastic Hearts” album.
https://www.mileycyrus.com https://www.facebook.com/thekidlaroi
The last night, 09/18/21, we get to see Mammoth WVH open for Guns N’ Roses. Mammoth WVH wrote the lyrics, performed the vocals, and played all of the instruments on his self-titled debut album that dropped on 06/11/21 which is also available on vinyl. This video of his song, ‘Don’t Back Down’ gives us an idea of what we can enjoy as far as his band performance goes!
What a relief Guns N’ Roses was able to reschedule their 2020 date to close out Summerfest 2021! I am one of the many who spent the summer of 1987 listening to “Appetite for Destruction” in complete fascination with every song, from ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ to ‘Rocket Queen,’ without even thinking about how it would be a timeless masterpiece and one of the greatest selling albums of all time. Here we are, 34 years and several albums later, Guns N’ Roses will make Milwaukee ‘Paradise City!’
Ground Stages
Starting at the south end: BMO Harris Pavilion (literally on the shore of Lake Michigan), JoJo’s Martini Lounge, American Family Insurance Amphitheater, and Briggs and Stratton Big Backyard. Head north, near the midgate, to Generac Power Stage, Northwestern Mutual Community Park (Children’s Stage), Gruber Law Offices SportsZone, Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, and Miller Lite Oasis. Head further north to Klements Sausage and Beer Garden, US Cellular Connection Stage, and Uline Warehouse is at the North End of the Summerfest grounds. There are plenty of places to stop to drink and eat along the way.
All of the stages have fantastic sound systems with personnel who know how to run sound, a security team, and a stage manager. Some fans stake out their seats early for headliners, all depending upon who that might be.
It’s also important to know which stages have covered seating areas, just in case rain is expected and you don’t have a rain poncho to use. Unless the rain is coming in sideways, which hardly ever happens, shows continue during heavy rain showers on BMO Harris Pavilion, Jojo’s Martini Lounge, and Johnson Controls World Stage.
New Stage Sponsor
Generac Power has replaced Harley Davidson and noted improvements include better ADA seating, a new pylon sign, permanent theatrical lighting infrastructure (which is expected to be amazing because the stage lighting was excellent before the change to Generac Power), and an expanded video presence with additional screens.
Tickets
Summerfest has a variety of options, including American Family Insurance Amphitheater shows, Multi-Day Passes starting at $57.00, Single Day Tickets, and Premium Experiences with assigned seating for BMO Harris Pavilion Reserved Seating or the Miller Level Up Viewing Deck: https://www.summerfest.com/ticket-info/
This is 75 acres so comfortable walking shoes are recommended. If you plan to spend the day, don’t forget the sunscreen. It takes a good 15 to 25 minutes (depending on how fast you want to move) of walking to get from one end of the festival grounds to the other, and that’s without running into huge gatherings of music fans standing around the outside areas of each stage. Hardcore fans make this trek several times per visit because there are so many great bands to see on every stage. There’s also a Sky Ride, for a fee, which operates near Briggs and Stratton Big Backyard to the food court just past Johnson Controls World Stage. If you are new to Summerfest, and thinking of music tents instead of stages, here’s your notice: these are all permanent stages with seating much more generous than tents permit.
Ground Stage Headliners
Please continue to look at the Summerfest website, https://www.summerfest.com/lineup/, to see the bands and schedules fill up over the next few months.
Keep Checking the website
Don’t forget to keep checking the Summerfest website to see the additions! Shutter 16 hopes to see you there! https://www.summerfest.com/
