I know, you've heard of Bonnarroo, and Austin City Limits, and all these other festivals but not really of Milwaukee's Summerfest.  I guess it's good that it's still mostly a secret.  Because it rocks.  I've been going there my whole life, never miss more than a year or two in between.  And I have an unbiased opinion from my husband George, so I know I'm not delusional - 11 days every single year, 9 music stages included for one low admission price - $15 for me, $3 for George (as a Senior).

This year we got to Milwaukee on July 2 and the fest had already been going on for a week (!)  We went down on July 3, intending to see the Wailers, with 11 of us including all the nephews.  We got into the Potowatomie stage early enough to secure a bench and take turns wandering around.  When it was our turn, George and I stopped in at Alejandro Escovedo -- wow.  What a great show.  He finished with a song called" Castanets" that he said he was embarrassed had made George W. Bush's iPod and that he had only recently started playing again.

After waiting a ton of time and lots of crowd bumping and crowding and some really drunk people and some quite intoxicating aromas, we made it through about 4 or 5 Wailers songs before we wandered off.  It was crazy crowded and really really loud.  I love loud music, but was relieved to get a bit further away.  The Plain White T's were playing right next door at the Cellular One stage but I honestly could not hear them  - my bass recepters were totally shot.   We walked down to the M&I stage and watched some of Kansas, including my favorite tune of theirs "Portrait (He Knew)".  I used to listen to that on huge Koss sterophones on my brother John's stereo.... way back when.

We left Kansas to go all the way back up to the Zippo stage and see Gomez.  We were kicking back and enjoying that show when I got a text message from my sister that it was time to go.   Turns out that I did more text messaging this last weekend than ever before combined times 10.  Phone calls just don't work at concerts!  It was interesting to see the text/phone network get overloaded so it took a few tries to get messages through.

After a few more amazing days of parades, lake party, fireworks and more fireworks, we went back on Sunday.  That day was a free entrance promotion from noon-3pm.  So this time cost nothing, nada to get in.  My favorite up and coming band, fourwayfree, was playing at 4pm, and my sister and her friends came through with a bunch of people to watch.  Half of this band lives in Morgan Hill, and I talk to the guitar player right here on mySpace.  Well, turns out the band was looking for a place to stay, and well, my brother John and his wife and two teen musician boys said OK, so we set them up to stay (gulp!).  Turns out it was all cool, we had to leave before they got over there, but I checked in every day.  Anyway, everyone loved Fourwayfree's music, it was on this great, out of the way,  shady , Chipotle stage so it could not have been better.    They had a big crowd who all seemed to love the music.  And the guys sounded great and seemed to be having a good time up there performing.  My nephew Jack got a t-shirt and we got him all the guys' autographs on his CD.

The highlight act for us that night was Earth Wind and Fire.  We found a good place to wait for them to start, and it got more crowded, and more crowded and crazy more crowded.  We watched the first four songs or so (sound famililar?) before we wandered off.   George actually guessed the opening song of "Boogie Wonderland" -- I couldn't believe it!  We then saw some of Lady Antebellum, then sat down for awhile at the the Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi revue at the Harley stage, then got a pretty good seat to listen to Jakob Dylan for awhile at the Potowatamie. All soooo cool.  We popped in on Mickey Hart at the very end, he was the drummer for the Grateful Dead, but somehow I thought he was one of the Monkees.  (close, huh?)  

We droppped off my brother, eyelids drooping and were just upstairs at my parents' when the band guys called to say they were on their way to John's.  D'oh!  We were getting up at 5:30am to get to O'hare for our flight, so no way was George going back out (OK, I was tired too...)

So put together the music, and  the beer and wine coolers (only at Summerfest) and the foooood.  YUM. This festival takes place right on the lakefront.  We had amazingly good weather all weekend.  Sort of perfect, y'know?    Now tell me there's a better music festival??  I don't think so...

We came home to hot (105 degress) and smoky weather, and then found out that the lab I work in couldn't get the power back on, so it was shut down for the first 2 days this week.  So we could actually have stayed.... it was kind of killing me not to get to visit with the band guys while they were staying with my family, but hey.  Like I said, the trip was already pretty much perfect.  We had lots of time with my parents, and I even got in a good bike ride on my sister's bike with one of my sister's friends.  Does my family rock, or what?

Trip photos are online here.