The East Side Summer Soulstice Music Festival

Always a good time. Free music, delicious food, great vendors. One of my favorite festivals in Milwaukee. Bummer that Miller dominates but you can go into any bar and get your beer of choice.

This year, it was all about local music, and in a big way.
Quality local music.
Kick-​ass local music.
Really really good local music.
Tiki drinks? Check.
Beer vendors? Check.
Foodz? Of Course.
Dodgeball cage? Check and mate.
Arts and DIY vendors on Murray? Check.
Milwaukee awesome? Definitely.
The East Side BID/​Made in Milwaukee did a really stellar job «reclaiming» this particular North Avenue festival. Gone are the cheesy cover bands from days of yore, gone are the festival staples that don’t boast any local flavor or tie-​ins but did boast tons mindless crap for sale.
Still present and inevitable, however, is the witching hour, when this or any festival of similar duration goes from day to night. Being a noon-​midnight kind of deal poses challenges insofar as flow and demographic on a couple of levels. For me, it was like coming back to a whole different festival after 9pm. (I was there earlier in the day, and the whole thing seemed pretty tame, but post witching hour… well, let’s just say we’re definitely still on North Ave after 9pm!) The organizers did a great job having local police and security present to make sure drunk kids didn’t wander out into traffic (Farwell doesn’t shut down for this festival despite the fest itself lying on North from Oakland to Prospect).
Overall, I’m really excited as to where this festival is headed, and I look forward to attending in the future. There’s so much diversity of local business, art, and culture on the East Side, and it’s great to see the festival (finally) reflecting that fact!

This festival is located on North Ave between Prospect and Oakland. Free admission. Music on both ends and in the middle (4 stages, one per block). They blockade the streets for the day. It is a cool idea. There are food trucks, but I found the selection to be limited. Fortunately, there are lots of other options close by on North Ave and surrounded. The vendors are kind of lame (I don’t know how much more strange smelling soap I can see for sale!?). Evening is not appropriate for kids.

Music, food trucks, Milwaukeeans and cocktails. All my favorite things on a bee-​yoo-​ti-​ful summer day.