Almost Time for the 55th Anniversary of Summerfest
The 75-acre Henry Maier Festival Park, located in Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan, is the place to see over 800 artists/bands perform on 13 stages over three weekends: 06/22 – 06/24, 06/29 – 07/01, and 07/06 – 07/08/23. Summerfest remains one of the largest music festivals in the world and it provides 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. Wear comfortable shoes for walking and don’t forget the sunscreen. There is a children’s stage and park with a playground, a sports zone featuring a variety of sports, twelve ground stages, plus an amphitheater. The location is also super easy to access by both public transportation and your own vehicle as parking lots are plentiful. Summerfest does a great job booking fantastic local, regional, and national bands, and yes, this is the 55h Anniversary!
Tickets & Passes
Here’s the link for admission tickets, premium experience tickets (an upgrade for the BMO and Miller High Life stages), tickets with hotel packages, parking, and American Family Insurance Amphitheater tickets:
https://www.summerfest.com/ticket-info/
You can also purchase general admission tickets at the gates and both premium experience tickets and American Family Insurance Amphitheater tickets at the box office.
American Family Insurance Amphitheater
The general admission Summerfest tickets do not include entry to the headliners performing at American Family Insurance Amphitheater, but your American Family Insurance Amphitheater ticket does get you general admission into Summerfest only for the date of your show.
Speaking of shows, I cannot think of a better opening headliner to kick off the 55th Anniversary of Summerfest, on 06/22/23, than Eric Church, who is a multi-country music award winner, multi-platinum album recording artist, and recent co-founder of Whiskey JYPSI, and his special guest Elle King, on his The Outsiders Revival Tour. Eric’s cover of “Gimme Shelter” is a favorite on the recently released Stoned Cold Country, which you can check out here:
The following night, 06/23/23, features the Grammy-winning recording group Zac Brown Band with The Marcus King Band as the opener. Let’s put the music aside for a moment because I think it is important to recognize how much Zac Brown Band, especially bassist John Driskell Hopkins (who was diagnosed with ALS), have been shining a light on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease,” by performing a concert on 06/02/23 following the Milwaukee Brewers v. Cincinnati Reds game at Great American Ballpark, with proceeds going to Hop On A Cure Foundation, in addition to the band selling a featured “Cure ALS” Hop On A Cure jersey t-shirt on their website with proceeds going to the same foundation: https://zacbrownband.com/collections/featured/products/hop-on-a-cure-jersey
Wrapping up the first weekend of Summerfest on 06/24/23 is the iconic “Sweet Baby James” aka James Taylor, with Sheryl Crow as the opener. There is much to be said about James Taylor and his fifty-seven years of performing, with his first Grammy win in 1971 for Best Pop Vocal Performance Male with “You’ve Got A Friend,” his sixth and most recent Grammy win in 2021 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album with American Standard, and an overall career album sales in the hundred millions. There is no doubt his Summerfest audience will be “thanking their lucky stars” as they enjoy this show.
Dave Matthews Band, a Summerfest Amphitheater headliner favorite, opens up the second weekend on 06/29/23. We don’t know if they will perform for three hours like they did when they last played Summerfest in 2021, but we do anticipate hearing songs from their Walk Around The Moon album, which was just released on 05/19/23.
06/30/23 has a special night of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) which I can best describe as electronic/trip-hop/jazzy/club vibe, and the headliner of this unique and intriguing night of creative artists is Odesza, featuring their latest album The Last Goodbye, which is also supported by a one night only cinematic experience at theaters on 07/07/23. Openers are Bonobo, DRAMA, QRTR, and OLAN. This is only the third time EDM headlines the amphitheater at Summerfest.
Wrapping up the second weekend of Summerfest is a night of Rap on 07/01/23, featuring A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Trippie Redd, City Girls, and the opener Milwaukee’s Kia Rap Princess. Fans expect to experience new music from A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s latest album Me vs. Myself, released on Atlantic 12/9/2022, and from Trippie Redd’s Mansion Musik, released through 10K Projects and 1400 Entertainment on 1/20/2023. City Girls are Yung Miami and JT, and their latest single is “Good Love” with Usher, released on Quality Control Music in 2022. Many Kia Rap Princess fans know her best by “Issa Vibe,” self-released 4/1/2019.
The final weekend starts with America’s favorite island escape artist Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band on 07/06/23, as they turn this amphitheater into “Margaritaville.” Speaking of “Margaritaville,” the song was just inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry earlier this year, which is quite an honor and shows how this song, initially written on a napkin, has made millions of people happy since the first time he performed it in the early 1970s.
Zach Bryan, who just won the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards New Male Artist of the Year on 05/11/23, headlines 07/07/23. His beautiful song “Something In The Orange,” was also a final 2023 Grammy nomination in the category of Best Country Solo Performance, and you can check that out here:
Wrapping up the final night, 07/08/23, are returning amphitheater headliners Imagine Dragons and AJR. It’s obvious Milwaukee simply cannot get enough of Imagine Dragons, as the band sold out the Fiserv Forum when they last performed here in February 2022, they also sold out their Summerfest amphitheater headlining performance in 2018, and in 2013 they drew such a tremendous crowd at Summerfest on the Miller Light Oasis ground stage resulting with over 5,000 fans having to be let in for free. This tour supports Mercury Acts 1 & 2, released 07/01/2022. Add indie pop trio brothers AJR, who just headlined this amphitheater last year, as the opener for this final night. AJR has dropped three new songs believed to be on their upcoming album which fans call TMM: “I Won’t,” “The DJ is Crying for Help,” and “The Dumb Song.” Fans will no doubt be hoping to enjoy any more new music from AJR’s upcoming album that does not yet have a release date.
Ground Stage Headliners
There are so many great ground stage headliners and you can use this official Summerfest lineup link to sort by stage, date, and even weekends: https://www.summerfest.com/lineup/
