Taste test: Milwaukee's Summerfest is delicious
We can Taste the difference between Chicago's annual food fest and Milwaukee's breezy concerts
I lost my appetite for Taste of Chicago a long time ago. I've been around long enough to remember when Taste began as a civilized affair with a few fancy restaurants along North Michigan Avenue. Now it's a mess of sweaty people in Grant Park stuffing themselves as if they are on a collective Death Row. Taste calls itself the "World's Largest Food and Free Entertainment Festival." Taste of Chicago is the world's largest free mosh pit.
The Taste's 28th annual Independence Eve Concert takes place at 8 p.m. July 3 at the Petrillo Music Shell. Every July 3 is when about 30 million people converge on Grant Park. Around noon last July 3, I drove past Grant Park. People were already clamoring for their fireworks viewing spots along Lake Shore Drive. Are we that small of a town? Is it "Taste of Green Acres"?
(Courtesy)
SUMMERFEST
Thursday-July 6
Noon-midnight daily
Henry W. Maier Festival Park (Summerfest Grounds); 200 N. Harbor Drive, Milwaukee
General admission to festival grounds: Adults, weekdays noon-4 p.m.: $8; weeknights and weekends: $15. Seniors (60 and over), $3. Children (ages 3-10), $3; Under age 2, free
I will be on more comfortable ground this July 3 watching singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams on the new Harley-Davidson Roadhouse stage (pavilion capacity 8,100) at Summerfest in Milwaukee. The 41st annual Summerfest runs from June 26-July 6. (Taste runs from June 27-July 6.)
Summerfest is what Taste should be.
Summerfest lines are shorter, the lake breeze is cooler and the music bookings are more adventurous. The Polyphonic Spree is appearing at 10 p.m. June 29 on Summerfest's U.S. Cellular Connection Stage (capacity 5,700); Bootsy Collins headlines a "Tribute to James Brown" at 8:30 p.m. June 30 on the M&I Classic Rock Stage (capacity 6,200, room for dancing), and at 6 p.m. June 26 Eric Burdon and the Animals appear before an 11 p.m. Gnarls Barkley set at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard stage (capacity 4,500).
The Taste has smaller stages, too, but they feature local acts like the hip-hop tribute Too-White Crew (7:30 p.m. June 29), fine blues guitarist Melvin Taylor (7:30 p.m. July 4) and the funk of Bumpus (7:30 p.m. July 5).
The Summerfest logo is a smiley face. It was designed in 1970. How Milwaukee. And the president and CEO of Milwaukee World Festival Inc. (which puts on Summerfest) is Don Smiley.
That could only be a better story if the head of Summerfest was Laverne Shirley.
A native of Racine, Wis., Smiley is a former president of the Florida Marlins baseball team. He has been with Summerfest since 2004.
"Since I've been here, the biggest change in philosophy was the benchmark of success," Smiley said. "And that was if Summerfest drew 1 million people. The newspapers had a daily attendance tally and compared it to the previous year. That really struck me. The philosophy now is not about 'how many.' And, frankly, the event operates more efficiently with less people. There's only X amount of space here (75 acres). And while it is significant space, when you get too many people, it is hard to park, hard to get to a stage, hard to get a beer. We're trying to get away from this notion that more is better. It was challenging to change people's thinking of why it's better to draw 850,000 people vs. a million."
I've been saying that for years about Chicago's free Grant Park festivals. A minimal ticket charge not only weeds out some characters but helps support better bookings. The city will tell you that a free festival makes the event available to everyone, but in 24 years of covering major free festivals, the only times I have seen that consistently played out in heartfelt manners are the jazz and gospel festivals. And with the city's financially crippled education and transportation systems, why are we having a huge free festival, anyway? Last year's Taste of Chicago drew 3.6 million people -- a record for a 10-day Taste (some have run 11 days).
I always hope Taste harkens back to the days of quality food, and it is nice to see vendors like Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt offering a crawfish boil and Polo Cafe's skewered shark Veracruz.
"People love and look forward to the pizza and turkey legs at Taste," said Sheila O'Grady, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, which oversees the food at Taste. "So there isn't an effort to move away from them. There is an effort to give consumers what they want, and now more than ever they want variety and choice. This year's Taste will offer a variety of menu items from ethnic restaurants and vegetarian restaurants and healthier options."
Summerfest's modest $5-$8 ticket price helps support better music bookings. Smiley said the 2008 Summerfest budget is $31 million, with $9.6 million (or roughly 31 percent) allocated to entertainment.
A City of Chicago official said the 2008 Taste of Chicago budget is $9.5 million, with roughly 10 percent allocated to entertainment. [The budget does not include money paid to restaurants from ticket sales.] The official added that money made from Taste supports the other free events sponsored by the City of Chicago.
The non-profit Summerfest has been able to use funds for improvements on the grounds. In 2006, two stages were demolished and rebuilt. The new Harley-Davidson Roadhouse offers a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan. Summerfest does have the luxury of fixed stages and fenced-in grounds at Henry Maier Festival Park, unlike most of Grant Park.
"Do we charge enough to pay for the caliber of music that shows up here every year?" Smiley asked. "Probably not. But we try to keep this affordable for the masses. Look at the ticket prices of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival [$50] or Bonnaroo [$209.50]. But we're in a blue-collar, working-class town. Our core business is music, and we want to get that right. There used to be rides and carnival games. We got rid of them because it was hard to process. Are we a state fair? A music festival? On one hand, you need to have things for people to do, but it crosses the line pretty quickly into being all things for all people and then you take your eye off the ball."