Summerfest 2011 Wrap Up

It's hard to believe another Summerfest has come and gone. I would have to rank this years fest as one of the better ones I've ever attended. The music lineup was great this year, with somebody to see every single night. Except for opening night, there was not much overlapping of bands I wanted to see, so no really tough choices to make this year. The weather was virtually perfect every day. I've been down there when it got so cold that I had to wear a jacket or buy a sweatshirt to keep from freezing, I've been there when it's been so hot and humid it was absolutely miserable, and I've been there for some pretty wicked storms too. Except for a few light sprinkles in between the Heart and Def Leppard sets, it did not rain at all. Almost 900,000 people came through the gates this year, and attendance was up over the last several years. I'm sure the weather played a part in that.

The following are some of my observations of the good, the bad and some changes I'd like to see in the future:



-Closed On Monday When I first heard they were going to do the unheard of and actually close the grounds for a day in the middle of the fest, I was skeptical. Both Monday's and the 4th of July were always some of my favorite times to go, mainly because they weren't well attended, so they were usually relaxing nights with no waiting for anything and no crowds. Looking back now, I'm kind of glad they did it. It was nice to have a little intermission after 5 straight days, and it recharged my batteries for the final 6 days. I wasn't dragging as much towards the end this year. Summerfest has already announced they are going to do it again next year.



-South End Changes The fest did a great job with the renovation of the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard stage and the new south gate area. That area was one that definitely needed it, especially the bathrooms. The stage area has a more cozy feel to it now, and by moving it out from under the Hoan Bridge, the acoustics sound better. They did add a video screen, but I'd like to see at least another one if not more added like they did at the Miller Lite Oasis and the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse stages. For some reason, they decided to serve Coors products at this stage, when all the other stages have the various Miller lines. Luckily they had Leienkugel's Summer Shandi tough.





-Classic Rock Stage The next stage area that needs a makeover is this. While still a fairly new stage to the fest, it's been around long enough to deserve better treatment. When it first started, they had the stage facing north, but moved it closer to the lake and faced it West a couple of years ago. While some of the other stages have some bleed over of the music, this area seems to have the worst problem. During certain shows, you could hear the thumping bass coming from Kayne West or Britney Spears at the Marcus Amphitheatre, and friends who went to see Peter Gabriel said they could make out exactly which songs Hall & Oates were playing during Gabriel's show. Some of the shows such as Styx and REO Speedwagon were so packed, if you left during the show to grab a beer or hit the bathroom, it was going to be next to impossible to get back to your seat. Obviously, this stage attracts some big crowds, but we still share several rows of Port-A-Johns with Jo Jo's Martini Lounge next door. This stage needs it's own permanent bathrooms put in. It could also use some video screens like the other major stages.





-The Food Excellent as usual. Kudos to Saz's, Major Goolsby's, The Venice Club, Martino's, The Greek Village, and John Hawkes Pub. Two thumbs down to new vendor Zaffiro's though. I tried their pizza once and while it didn't suck, it's nowhere near as good as The Venice Club's. Plus you only got a choice of 1 topping, (Venice Club's has sausage and pepperoni on one pie), and while it was smaller and had a thinner crust than Venice Club's, it was .50 more. I went back the last night and tried their cheese garlic bread. Of the 8 thin slices, only 3 actually had any cheese on them, and it was so greasy, I had to squeeze the bread to get most of it out. Nothing I would order again.

-Cell Phone Service When cell phones stated getting popular, I used to complain about all the people talking on them at Summerfest, mostly saying inane things to the person on the other end such as "Guess where I am?" I do find now that they come in handy when a great song is played and you call a friend who couldn't make the show just to rub it in. It's also good for trying to meet up with people on the grounds. I'm not sure if it's just the location down by the lake, or just too many people using them, but no matter who your provider is, the service sucks at Summerfest. So many times I couldn't get calls to go through, or I would be on the way home and all of a sudden a bunch of calls or texts would show up from people who were trying to get a hold of me.

-Staggered Start Times For Headliners I liked that some of the shows at the Classic Rock Stage and some others started at 9 or 9:30 instead of the usual 10PM start. This way if the band ends at 10:30 or even 11 you still have time to see another show at one of the other stages. I'd like to see more of this, especially with acts that might appeal to the same demographic.


-More National Acts Earlier The biggest thing keeping Summerfest from really becoming the best music festival in the world is that most of the day's bands are local cover or tribute bands. When you look at other festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, they have a 10 day run and you have acts like Jeff Beck playing at 3:30 in the afternoon, or Bon Jovi and Jimmy Buffett playing at 5:30. Other fests like Coachella, Sweden Rock Fest and the Download Festival, while having shorter runs, all have major acts playing all day long. I realize that it is cheaper for Summerfest to book those types of bands, and if they did start booking more national acts, then ticket prices most likely would go up. I'm not sure if there's a perfect solution to this, but it would be nice to see more national up and coming acts playing the 6 and 8PM slots. While there were some bands such as Fitz & The Tantrums, Bad City and Dot Dot Dot to name a few, I'd like to see a lot more in the future.

-Drop the Rap, Bring Back Jazz I realized that rap and hip-hop is a popular form of music, but it brings the wrong element to Summerfest. Witness the events of the night that some guy named Whiz Kalifa performed. That night was the closest it came to feeling "uncomfortable" at the fest. When I walked through that stage area around 6PM, the smell of marijuana was already wafting through the air. The crowd eventually grew way too large for that stage area, and several fights broke out. Walking past that area on the way out later that evening, it was clear there were groups of kids who were just looking for trouble. In talking to several security guards the next night, they said it was not a good situation, and luckily didn't turn out as bad as it could have. There's plenty of local outlets with security who are prepared to handle this type of audience, so there's no reason to have this style of music at Summerfest. They are just asking for trouble.

For years, the Miller Lite Oasis was known as the Miller Jazz Oasis featuring jazz bands almost every night such as Spyro Gyra, Jeff Lorber, Tower Of Power etc. Those days are long gone for dedicating a stage to a single type of music, but as far as I could tell, there wasn't a single jazz act appearing this year at all, not even local boy Daryl Stuermer. Probably the closest to jazz was the Max Weinburg show, mainly because Mindi Abair was on sax. It would be nice to add some jazz in future years. I doubt they will ever bring back stand up comedy either, but one or two acts a year couldn't hurt.





My Top 5 shows this year were:


1-Styx

2-America

3-REO Speedwagon

4-Heart

5-Kansas


Summerfest starts again June 27th, 2012. I can't wait!