Summer in Milwaukee Guide (May + June) w/ Josh and Claire from VISIT Milwaukee

What’s better than summer in Milwaukee? On this episode we’re joined by Josh Albrecht and Claire Hanan from VISIT Milwaukee to let you know all the events to hit in May & June (plus a couple others)! We cover:

• Milwaukee Wheel of Fortune 
• The Adidas Shoe Drop that sold out (and another one coming) 
• The Milwaukee Gold Rush? 
• Michelin in Milwaukee 
• Milwaukee Chefs 
• Must hit events in May & June

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. We've got a full May and June preview for you with our good friends Josh and Claire from Visit Milwaukee. Couldn't think of two better people to have on this episode, they know pretty much everything going on in Milwaukee, and they host the best events calendar in Milwaukee. So we're gonna give you a good preview, but make sure to visit visitmilwaukee.org and just click on events, and they've they've got literally everything going on there. We also talk about their shoe drop they did in collaboration with Summerfest and Adidas that sold out really fast, and there might be a new one coming. Also, there is a cheese hunt where there will be$20,000 cash up for grabs in Milwaukee, but there's a bit of a catch, so we dive into that. We also talk Michelin in Milwaukee and more. If you're pumped for summer, this is a great one for you. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We'll kick things off with Nicola Injured. Get Nicola in Russell and the team will take great care of you. Drink Wisconsin Wee Beverage Company, best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game, available at liquor stores across the state, at the DW pub across from the Pfizer and the Corner Bar in Right Field at Ampham. And last but not least, Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances in order this summer, talk to our friends, the experts at Annex Wealth Management. Just head to annexwealth.com. Annex know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Josh and Claire from Visit Milwaukee. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. What better place is there to be in the summer than Milwaukee, Wisconsin? And today, got two amazing people from Visit Milwaukee, Claire Hannon and Josh Albrick. Not Josh Ashenberg, so I've cut that more, but Josh Josh, Josh Albrick from Visit Milwaukee. And we're gonna give you a uh a guide and not to the entire summer, but really with uh a focus on the rest of May and June because there's a lot of going a lot going on. There's a lot going on. And before we get into that, you guys have done some really cool stuff recently.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

We've been busy bees.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yeah, yeah, it's been uh a fantastic April. Just April alone has been uh the uh probably the same amount of work as a full year's worth of uh things. In in many respects, it was a full year. I mean, the things that we've been launching have taken a full 365-day calendar year, right? Whether that's getting Milwaukee on Wheel of Fortune, our own episode of Wheel of Fortune uh to showcase to uh the world. And believe it or not, there's eight to nine million viewers of Wheel of Fortune every night. Is it is second only to the NFL in in uh repeat viewership. Can you believe that? That that's how many people. Not by the blank stare I'm giving right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I blew your mind.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

And that's broadcast television still. It is that popular of a show. We're not even including streaming, next day streaming on Hulu and Peacock, which takes it to about 14 million viewers of every episode of Wheel of Fortune. So if you're not watching Wheel of Fortune, I guarantee it somebody in your family is. And uh and we had Milwaukee on it. We had a wedge prize. So many of our partners, uh, you know, whether it was the the Pfister and the Barlotta restaurant group and and several others, uh, Lakefront Brewery. Um somebody gave us prize packets. We had the prize package on the wheel that someone could have won. Of course, the the contestant on the show did not win the prize package, but what was the prize package? Yeah, but now I'm intrigued. Oh man, we had so uh like it was a trip to Milwaukee in the summer for Summerfest and uh a cheese curd making class at Lakefront Brewery, uh spa treatments at the Fister.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Um about 12,000 bucks is in a Milwaukee vacation.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Does Lakefront do cheese curd making classes? I feel like they'd want to keep that recipe under wraps.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Well, it's a it's a special experience that you can get if you were a wheel watcher, you know? Uh and of course, we uh got to uh use their email marketing system and we sent direct messages to all their Wheel Watchers club and uh great way just to grow the network across the country and the globe. It's it airs in Canada and the United Kingdom too. So uh people from all over the world were watching Wheel of Fortune seeing Milwaukee Shine Bright.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

And that wasn't even on the outline.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

No things you've done. Do you want to get the beautiful shoes we're wearing right now? Our uh our amazing collab with with Adidas and Sheik James here locally, who owns Clicks and Sneaks and Summerfest again uh to drop two shoes, two different styles of shoes. The first one dropped uh in April here, uh just in time for 414 Day. That's the one I'm wearing now. For those watching, they can see the shoes. If you didn't see it online, if you didn't see it on social in Milwaukee, if you didn't see it in the news in Milwaukee, I'm not sure what you're watching. It was everywhere. And um the shoes sold out in one day. So one day the lines were wrapped around the block on Brady Street from roughly 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Complete sellout of the shoe. And online we had um it sell out online, the online availability sold out in 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

What did you guys expect to happen? Uh uh well, we knew we would get a lot of media energy. And how many pairs flew? Yeah, so we had uh just shy of 3,000 available for sale that day, uh, which is a uh a small boutique run. I mean, we weren't looking to like have these sold everywhere, we wanted to sell them in the water. And we wanted to be able to tell the story of the city, that's why it's the map on the shoe, that's why we have uh a bunch of Easter eggs on the shoe of Summerfest and uh and things like that. And we thought this is a great storytelling piece. Uh, enter our flavor era that we promote right now through our marketing. Um, and and yeah, so that's it was just that it was like extending the message.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Well, and so one of the coolest things about it is when you unbox the shoe, take it out of the special paper that we got to design that has like this design on it. Um, you take it out and there's a special metal like hang tag thing with a compass on it. You scan that with your phone, and that's your Summerfest ticket. And it gives you a single-day GA entry to Summerfest. So for us, as you know, trying to get visitors here, you can order that shoe from Shake's website in LA, and you in theory, it brings you to Milwaukee, so you can come to Summerfest. And that like we thought that that fact alone would really help it go viral online, get picked up in media, and it definitely did. And so like we're not in the business of selling shoes, but I think given all that and all of that that made it unique, that like when it blew up online, and then we went to the store and I started talking to people that were like, I've been in line since 6 a.m., like here to get these, and then I mean it was wild.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, you're not in the business of shoes, but you're in the business of Milwaukee. And if you drop a cool product with a great story behind it, you see what that can do.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Yeah, a big portion of what we're trying to uh establish with our tourism marketing and just the marketing in general for the city is that this is Milwaukee as a lifestyle brand. And so it was uh the concept was you know, before you even before you even see the skyline, you're wearing the shoes. And you're you're being endeared to the city and you're being endeared to what we represent and the lifestyle that we live here as a collective. And we want that that same energy to be infused across the country, right? So if you're whether you're from LA or Austin or uh Detroit, you want to be a part of the scene in Milwaukee. And part of that is cool style, right? It's it's shoes, it's it's that flavor that we bring. Um and so we want people to wear it and they they gravitate toward it, they they embraced it. Our locals embraced it. Um the labs. We we launched it at South by Southwest with Summerfest and Shake and Adidas. That's where it launched back in March. We announced it to the world, and right away um the community gathered around it, and the sneaker community gathered around it, and then next thing you know, hip hop culture is all around it, and people are wanting uh athletes were reaching out to us, uh begging for pairs. Musicians, um, and there's and those those requests are still coming. People are because there's people are catching up, right? Yeah, and they're like, Oh, can I still get a pair? And you're like, sorry, sold out.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, we found them on eBay for 800 bucks, uh, which is why I'm gonna go. You can still get your pairs on the page. Yeah, yeah. So technically you can find them. But we so on June 6th.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Not not Peggy, Peggy selling them on eBay, is it? Well, you never know.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

No, it's not. Um, but on June 6th, that's when um the other style, the forum style, um, the what the Milwaukee, these are the viewfinders. Um, so the second style, which is a forum style. Um, and those that's the same style as Shake's 414 shoe from last year, but obviously completely different design. And this design incorporates so many Milwaukee references. I don't even think I could list them all off the top of my head, but they're super colorful. There's tons of different patterns and textures to mimic waves and brick and cheese and box colors, marquette colors, UWM. Like it's it is everything, and they are really, really cool. Um, they have the same hang tag with the ticket on them. So those will go, those will drop on June 6th.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Yeah. So the first one, the viewfinder, was a literal map of the city. So an actual map overlaid on the shoe as part of the shoe. The second shoe is a cultural map of the city. Yep. So you have two ways to explore the city. That literal map, the grid system, it's on your shoe and the viewfinder. But if you want to really feel the culture and feel the people and the neighborhoods, all 191 neighborhoods, that's the what the.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yep. Is it is it the same drop formula? Is it 3,000? Is there gonna be some in retail, some online? Some retail, some online. Um so mark your calendar if you want. June 6th. Yeah, yeah. June 6th, show up early.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Coffee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Is that sweatshirt? Is that from the shoe? This yeah, we did do that.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah, we did do some merch um with Adidas. And so there was this. There's a long sleeve. Those sold out too. Sold out really fast. One of them was like a cool like crop jersey. That was like really cool. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

It's like in drop June since.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

And there will be merch with the second jersey.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

New fresh merch, fresh style, fresh shoes. Yeah, you're not you're not gonna want to miss it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

We we do not personally have access to early sales, so let's put that out in the world to our friends and family. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. I got someone who came up to me in line that morning and they were like, I will buy you a steak dinner if you can get me the shoe right now. And I'm like, I can't.

unknown 11:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Are we talking carnivore steak dinner? What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yeah, no, it was. It was a carnivore steak dinner. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

So uh and then Michelin, speaking of food, right? I mean, yeah, flavor era. Going to the flavor era, dropping the shoes, dropping Wheel of Fortune. Uh, and really the biggest news might be Michelin. And now that we're a Michelin city, and this is huge for our culinary industry, but it's huge for the city in general. I mean, Michelin is the type of premier brand that is internationally known, internationally recognized, yeah, that puts you in the same playing field as other major cities around the world in that space. So now we can easily compare ourselves to Paris, to Tokyo, to London, to New York City, to Miami.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

And and we're we're we're peers now fully in the culinary space by having this Michelin partnership.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

So what and so they're inspectors who are totally anonymous. We don't know how many of them there are, we don't know what they look like, we don't know their names. Um, they are out in the city and in the other Great Lakes cities that are doing that this with us, they're out there now inspecting our restaurants. So we're constantly telling our restaurants like now is the time, polish that silverware, it's a game only. Um, and if we have a restaurant that receives Michelin recognition, but especially a star, that doesn't just mean you're the best restaurant in Milwaukee. It doesn't mean that. It means you are as good as a starred Michelin restaurant in Singapore, in Tokyo, in Paris, and like it's it is it's a life-changing recognition. It means you are a sous chef at a one-star restaurant. You can now go work in any one-star restaurant in the world, and that is your that's your resume, that's your like seal of approval. Um, so it it it'll mean our restaurants have an easier time hiring people because everyone wants to work for a Michelin-starred restaurant. So the awards will be announced in 2027. We are so excited for that. And um, but yeah, the I mean the media coverage of the announcement alone is bonkers, so it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

How how rare is it for Michelin to come to a mid-market city like Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Well, extremely rare. I mean, they hadn't before. And our team had to work for over the last 12 to 18 months uh with them to uh figure out the best path to make sure that we were qualified. So first Yeah, how did how did that whole application process? We worked closely with the American Great Lakes uh contingent. So our friends in Detroit and Pittsburgh and uh Cleveland and Minneapolis and Indianapolis, and we all sort of came together, uh formed a group to pitch to Michelin why they should look at the Great Lakes region. Because other than Chicago, no other city in the Great Lakes region had been a Michelin city. Uh and we really wanted to put our put the collective on the map, and we knew we had more weight collectively than going individually to Michelin. So we made the pitch. They had to vet all the cities. So they actually sent uh inspectors, did their due diligence, how they do it, whether it's online or however, to judge each city and judge what they deemed as culinary maturity. Uh-huh. Was the city for far enough along in their restaurants, with their chefs, with their uh their culinary landscape to even be considered to be judged. So before we could even get there, we had to pass a test. Um and there were many cities reviewed across the Great Lakes region. So every state that touched the Great Lakes uh had cities reviewed. And during that time they came back to us and said, All right, Milwaukee is one of the ones that meets the culinary maturity. And that's partially because of the hard work that Visit Milwaukee has done, whether it's bringing top chef to the city into the state, launching a cookbook with our over 50 chefs in the community that we have that uh has been extremely well received, uh declared her team on our on our diligent work on PR of getting our restaurants in the New York Times, in National Geographic, in Coney Nash Traveler, and all these amazing publications, Eater and Midwest Living, making sure that we are being publicized. And then really the big test though, were our chefs capable? And they are. We have chefs like Edam Pollock, who's been a guest on the show here, who has made a name, right? He's made such a name, not just for himself, but when he does that, he's making a name for Milwaukee. When he's on Hell's Kitchen and Food Network, he's making a name for Milwaukee. When Dan Jacobs was a star on Top Chef, our season of Top Chef, and he made it to the finals, he's representing Milwaukee. When Paul Bartellotta is going on live with um with Kelly uh Regis and Kelly. Regis and Kelly. It's not Regis anymore. Who is it?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Uh Mark and Kelly.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Mark and Kelly. When he's going on that show and talking about uh the Bartolotta restaurants and sharing recipes, he's representing Milwaukee. And so all these great chefs when Dane Baldwin's been best chef Midwest for James Beard. And Moramoto, uh written a comma. Exactly. So I mean, we could keep going here, right? And saying, look at the quality of chef we have in this community. And the thing that really separates Milwaukee, though, that I believe is one of our separators, is that our chefs work together. You know, Dimsom Givesome just happened, a great fundraiser that all the chefs come together for. Um they they they do that throughout the year where they all come together and do these amazing fundraisers.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not really in that world, but when I talk to just Chef Adam and other chefs, it does seem like instead of competing against each other, which is what I would kind of think, because they're all restaurants, it does seem like they're cheering each other on and trying to uplift each other, which which does seem unique for a competitive environment.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Yeah, and it's been so that that showcase allowed Michelin to look at Milwaukee and say, yeah, they're they're they're ready to be judged, and they're ready and they can they can hold their own against any other city in the world on the culinary landscape. And so now it's time for our chefs and restaurants to to you know to to prove it for us. And I think that they can. I think I think we're gonna have several who are receive. So there's stars, there's one star, two stars, three stars. Obviously, one star, you're doing great, two stars, even better. Three stars, dear God, you're one of the best in the world. Uh and um, but there's also the Bib Gourmands, which is a recommended restaurant. So before you earn a star, you can be a Bib Gourmand and you can be Michelin recommended. I think we'll get several designations from our chefs. We've got such a strong uh restaurant community. So a year from now, hopefully we're talking about many, and um and uh and we'll see what happens when they announce at the at a ceremony next next spring.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah. Uh before we get into specific events going on in in May and June, anything you two are most excited about in Milwaukee this summer?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I mean, seeing our shoes walk into Summerfest, I think is gonna mean Summerfest is a little different for me this year. I'm really excited for that. Um we're gonna do some special stuff at Summerfest to like make it feel like you're you're walking into a community situation because you are, and like it they are their own club now. Um so we have some special tricks of our sleeves there. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Yeah, I mean we're the city of festivals. So give me a festival which happens literally almost daily throughout the summer in Milwaukee, whether it's Bastial Days who's celebrating anniversaries this year, or maybe it's IndyCar Race at the end of the season, Summerfest, Wisconsin State Fair, all the ethnic festivals. I mean the list goes on and on and on and on. Um it's really a delight to get to go to a pick your pick your flavor, right? Yeah, and you can go have fun.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Can't go wrong. I mean, we we went to Mexican Fiesta for the first time last year. I didn't realize it's like Summerfest in there. Yeah, yeah. It's so largest ethnic festival in the US, I think, over that time span. Yeah. More than 100,000 people every year.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah, Irish Fest, same size, same scale. I mean, Italiana's a good one. Seeing Pride Fest get bigger and bigger every year, and that's just like a rowdy party for four years.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

I mean, just the list goes on and on. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Every every weekend.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

City of festivals.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Um, let's get into events going on. Hey guys, just want to take a sec to remind you that spring is here. Time to open the windows, clean out the garage, and yeah, maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. If your retirement plan, investments, or estate stuff feels dusty or disorganized. Our friends at Annex Wealth Management are here to help, led by our guy who you've probably seen on some of our recent videos, Dave Spano. They're the ones to call. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm right here in Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Think of them as your financial spring cleaning crew. They'll help you declutter old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, and organize your estate documents and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our friends at AnnexWealth Management. Just head to annexwealth.com. All right, let's get back into it with Josh and Claire.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Well, there's still a few days left to enjoy uh the Bruce City Birding Fest. So it's like a legal requirement that once you hit 30, you get into birds.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

And so once you hit 30, what? Age in your okay. Yeah. So I should be birding right now.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Uh 100%. And so there's sorry for asking.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Sorry for asking. I think you'd like it. You seem like a bird.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I yeah, it's awesome. There's a lot of apps for our community, and um, there's also a lot of events as part of the festival, including like a kayaking paddle with the UEC. Um, so go paddle and bird watch. I just did it in Florida. You can do it in Milwaukee too. So that ends in 17 years.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Birding could be good for me. Bree's been telling me to relax more.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

It they're fascinating creatures.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Take a walk, uh, go go out to Lakeshore uh State Park and the uh and the that stretch of Lake Michigan has some of the most diverse offering of bird uh in the entire country. It's a big migratory path. Yeah, it's a huge migratory path along Lake Michigan, and you can get all year long, you're gonna see different birds throughout the year. So you just keep going back, take a nice walk, see the skyline in the background, and check out all the amazing birds.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Claire, do you even bird?

unknown 21:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Josh seems like he knows a lot more than you.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Well, okay. So Do you do you do bird bird?

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Do you even bird bird birds?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

I would say we have different geographic specialties in the community. No, even in Milwaukee. Look, I'm into crows, I love a hawk, you know, there we got eagles.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

But you can go all and you can go all over Washington Park. We took we took Bobby Porter's bird into Washington Park.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

He birds.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Oh, that would be good idea.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

That was a good time uh walking around. So the all those little pockets, all the little parks that we have.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Washington Park has a BIPOC birders club. Like where we roll deep.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh the Milwaukee Gold Rush.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah. We also uh our hunters of the city.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

The only thing that outshines our love of birds is our love of cheese. Is that it's a good segue right there. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

So it's scavenger hunt time uh actively going on right now. Um and you if you go to um the our digital map on visimalkey.org, you can sign up for this scavenger hunt where there's clues dropped on the schedule that's on the map. Um and it means you get out and explore the city and you might find a special sculpture, a cheese sculpture designed by artist Adam Heimbach. And there's varying amounts of cash hidden inside these sculptures. So you could keep it on your mantle uh as I would do, um, or smash it open, find some money. But the point is you want to find as many as you can.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

So there are hidden cheese sculptures around the city right now that you can go smash and get cash.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Or don't smash, because maybe this maybe because uh Adam is uh has a great following, is uh a famous artist. He has spent many years in New York City uh showing at galleries and doing graffiti style art throughout New York City, uh even though he's from Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area. Um so there is value already in the artwork. So you have to ask yourself, if you're lucky enough to find one of these uh cheese sculptures, you have to ask yourself, uh, is it worth destroying the art to see what's inside, or do I always have the art and wonder what's inside?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Do you know the varying amounts of cash? Because I saw on the website over 20 grand.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Over 20 grand worth of cash and prizes are available, and you don't know until you crack it open. It could be 20 grand, it could be a dollar, it could be nothing.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Do you guys know how many total sculptures are going out there this uh this season?

SPEAKER_03 24:07

It's to be determined because the great thing of working with a experiential artist is that things kind of organically grow. So um probably at least a dozen, but uh he I think he might surprise us every now and then. And what a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, it's gonna be super fun. Organic function.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Truly Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

The other events in May.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Yeah, Christian Yellich uh annual charity concert. We're a proud partner with the the Yellich concert every year, last three years. Uh it's growing this year. It's obviously uh in a new venue, uh, which is exciting. It's at the the new um Landmark Credit Union. Landmark Credit Union Live that's downtown. Uh so many people haven't been there yet, obviously, since it's brand new uh venue. Uh we can see Jake Owen there as the headliner, uh, so you can get your your country music on. Of course, Charlie Barron's friend of the pot here, I think. Uh Charlie is uh is gonna be MC and doing some comedy for everybody. Uh Nicotine Dolls, which is a popular band that's come comes through here every year, plays Summerfest. They've played the the charity concert every year. So those diehards of nicotine dolls can come uh get their fix. See what I did there, get their fix. Um but uh and then Chef Adam Pollock, who is as we mentioned, a friend of the pod here, uh, does a great uh VIP foodie experience that goes along with it. Uh those tickets are in short supply. So if you are a last-minute ticket buyer, you better look real quick at visitmilwaukee.org to see if those tickets are still available because those go fast. Plenty of general admission is still available so you can get general admission at least. Wonderful Nights Benefits Visit Milwaukee, our foundation, which goes to our emergency relief fund for small business owners when disruption occurs, as well as scholarships for local college students. Brewers Foundation gets some of the those funding, uh, that funding as well, and stuff for other uh local charities.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

So Heartland Farm Sanctuary and the public library. Yeah. As you can tell, I watched that clip like 30 times when I was editing it. And Isaac Slade from the fray, I think, is gonna be there. Yep, I know that. Well, but um yeah, I mean I'm I'm slightly biased because I was very thankful that Christian came in here, but it it it has been like my favorite charity event of the year. I like it. It's laid back. They do such a good job with the pre-party, the after party. It's a good it's a good event. Charlie's obviously very funny and some amazing musical acts. And um there's no other fundraiser like we also have um Tacos and Tequila, which is just like millennial bait to its core, I think.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

This is uh May 30th at Franklin Field. But you got like genuine, a lot of like millennial ripross, a lot of millennial and soldier boy. I'm trying to teach my kids to dance, um, but then delicious food trucks, great drinks, chihuahua contest.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Chihuahua contest. You got the whole lineup. Yeah, rumor is big Frank could be doing a set as well.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Oh dang local connect. And then the night before, the night before it's all country. Country. So you can get your your twofer, your country, and your RB right now. Big X the plug.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Big X the plug, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Big name and some other don't forget.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Shaggy Shaggy.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Shaggy Shaggy's is on the tacos side.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Shaggy is on him, like east.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Is Soldier Boy this year or was that last year? But Soldier Boy's this year, but Millionaire's feedback. I know I know my 2000s rap. Um Bree gives me a lot of shit for it. That was probably my favorite genre.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Flow riders coming to Summerfest, and I could not be more excited. Like, this is that I still have to.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

I might actually stay up past nine o'clock and flow riding.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

I saw him in Miami at a conference, and I know I was like, conference concert? Like, this is what's this gonna be? One of the best concerts I've ever seen. Flowrider brings it.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

What's your favorite Flowrider song of all time?

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Oh man, favorite? Uh well, I'm biased towards My House because it's I used to I used to coach soccer uh for my my son and his youth soccer team, a bunch of eighth graders, and we used to play My House to hype them. Uh so Flowrider on a Saturday morning at 9 a.m. to hype a bunch of eight-year-olds. Yeah, and you were what great coaching. Yeah. And parenting. Oh man. We we won the championship. How could you not could be any better? And I credit some of that to Flowrider.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

I liked right round. That was that was that was a banger. That was a banger.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Um man. Yeah. Oh, if you don't want to do if none of that is your bag, which that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Are you looking up Florrider song?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

I want I want I wanted to confirm something before I said it.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Um well we have smoke on the water is at the Summer Fest grounds that weekend, if you're more in the blues and barbecue mode. So just a little festival for every flavor. Uh and we're not even in June.

unknown 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

So what'd you find? What's the flow right? What do you got?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Nothing. Nothing but um uh good feeling came up. That was another good one. Um about Ayer?

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Ayer? A-Y-E-R-A.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I wasn't as big of an Ayer guy, but um Oh, I mean low with T-Pain?

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Come on, guys. Oh wow. Yeah. How do how did we miss that? Wild ones with Sia?

SPEAKER_03 29:34

Alrighty. So now everybody's listening to this and they're saying, Okay, oh dear God, I need to see Florida.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

I got confused. I got confused. Okay, so for some reason I thought Flow Rada might have hopped on um Lady Gaga's just dance. No. So I'm what I was thinking of is Kasha is actually on right round.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

That was all that all took place junior year in college. We were throwing some some keggers, and uh there was a lot of flow rata and lady gaga being played at the end.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Add in some Sean Paul at Summerfest this year. We have we have some stuff. And then if you want to get the rock, David Lee Roth, I'm can't wait for him either. You're gonna have old school 80s rock and roll. You've got Sean Paul with the reggae. I mean, Flow Rida with the 2000s rag.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Every everyone just descending on the city of Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

It's gonna be beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

They saw the Michelin news. They're trying to get the shoes. Lil Rider.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Lil Rider needs a pair of shoes.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Like, probably.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Last year I was at Tacos and Tequila and Lil John yelled at the entire crowd and said he didn't think we knew in Milwaukee where the windows on the walls were. Can you believe that? But he taught us, and we know now.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Were they on that one? Maybe. I don't maybe. They could they could be. They could be. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Um uh this does take us into June on the event.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

You did talk about smoke on the water, right? Well, that was well, I was ferociously looking up if Lowrider was on Lady Gaga's song.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Right after that's Pride Fest. So you get smoke of the water a week later, I think. You're at Pride Fest for the Friday. I'm fired up for Pride Fest.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

I have never been before. You gotta go. It's amazing. I think we're gonna go get some in-the-field content at Pridefest.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

I've gone the last two years, uh, some of the best nights of the season. Like they do it right there.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

For those whose therapy is dance, it's that's where you need to go. That's how I process a lot of my big feelings, and so it's like a cathartic experience, and you're doing it with 60,000 of your best friends in glitter.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Were you dancing? Oh, actually, you know, I did go for a little bit last year because it is literally right right there. Were you dancing in the rain last year? I remember the monsoon one day. No, okay. Oh, um, Locust Street Fest. They do a phenomenal beer run. I remember we covered that they have four beer stops and people run a mile, and I don't know how they do it. But um it's impressive to watch the elite athlete in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

There's there are there are festivals, there's events where you're like, it's just better to watch. And that might be a that's a watch.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I I don't enjoy throwing up personally, but um if other people are putting themselves in that position to showcase their athleticism, I'm I'm for it.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

I was reminiscing about um when Bastille days would have, remember they had like the bartender Olympic things where you had to like carry a tray full of wine glasses around and run and like sprint around an area and again feats of athleticism unique to our festival's sensibilities, and it it was just fantastic watching.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

I mean, think about feats of athleticism at festivals, five Sazz's sampler platters in one sitting. Did you do it? Did you do that? I mean, neither confirm nor deny.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I'd be very impressed. Those are really, really tasty. They're super tasty.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

And Saz's celebrating anniversary this year, too.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Happy 50th to our friends at Saz's 50th, Saz's Absolute legend growing up here in great business.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Um Lowlands for the first time throwing Belgian beer fest June 13th, I believe at in the heart of Tosa Village. I don't know if it's at Hart Park or right there, but um over 25 Belgian breweries and a hundred Belgian beers.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

I think that's awesome. You a Belgian beer and then one of their um fry cone like fries, the frites with all the little dipping sauces.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Yeah, like the sweet potato ones, those are those are good.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

And then get a bunch of sauces and have a beer on a nice sunny day. Yeah, perfect flavor combo. You don't need anything else.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

You think they'll have Belgian beer? I think they might have a couple, just a few, just a couple, just a couple.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Um perfect lead-in to World Cup season, I think. So genius on Lowland's part.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Yeah, lots of lots of World Cup activity this year. Zokolo is gonna have a watch party, um, several of the other bar you know bars throughout the area have them watch parties.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Oh, no mad scary.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

Brady Street will be hopping. Yep. Um we'll have a section on visitmilwaukee.org to highlight all the World Cup watch parties and block parties. So definitely people should be on the lookout for those. Those will be popping up a lot uh as we get into June and through July as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Toward the end of June, Tour of America's Dairyland. Speaking of lowlands, I know they love Toad. Those are fun to watch. I like it because I mean those guys go so fast and they're so close to each other. I'm I'm not athletic or brave enough to do that. And it's nice because they go around like every couple minutes. It's it's fun to watch.

SPEAKER_03 34:57

Those criterions, those types of races are really, really cool. Now imagine if we combined Locust Street Fest with Toad and they had to ride a bike and drink beer. I'm sure no one was there. Yeah, that's coming up too.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Yeah, you actually they just launched, you can register your vehicle, uh, like right now.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

And then tell me you guys got something cooking with D. Wade.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Yeah, that's right. Super excited to work with uh Dwayne Wade and Marquette University and uh trying to find a way to again raise funds for some really great programs uh through uh Sharp Literacy, uh putting funds towards uh a new uh some new facility work on the the auxiliary gyms and some things at Marquette University. Obviously, the Visit Milwaukee Foundation and what we do, same concept of our emergency relief fund and our scholarships and the Wade Scholars program that they announced last year, where they give full rides to several students every year to Marquette through the Wade Scholars program. We're lucky enough that one of the Wade Scholars is an intern with Visit Milwaukee. We've got a great program where uh uh the student who wins the Wade Scholarship also gets an automatic internship with Visit Milwaukee for at least one. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Uh so it's it's Fernando or someone else?

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Uh no, no, it's uh Kennedy Luckett is her name. Yeah, she's still a student, um, and she's a sophomore this year, and uh she's been doing fantastic uh work for us. But it's a great way for us to continue to work uh with the students, work with the Wade Foundation. We're gonna be having a party with them uh in July. So uh we're looking at July 16, 17 uh time frame. We'll do a guest bartending uh competition with Dwayne Wade and Travis Deaner, who they they played together on some of those. Deaner's very legendary Marquette teams uh from the Flowrider era. Um and a little before. Yeah, and uh uh so they're gonna compete at Central Standard, do a little guest bartending, see who can make the most tips in one night. It's a ticketed event. Yeah, uh all the proceeds go to those foundations and uh and nonprofits mentioned. And then we'll have an exclusive dinner with our friends at Lupin Iris on that Friday night. Uh a very small uh amount of tickets available for that, so people should act early. Uh tickets will go on sale soon during National Travel and Tourism Week on May 7th, uh, in celebration of uh Travis uh Diener's number seven. Uh and uh about 60 tickets only available that. So exclusive dinner at Lupin Iris or the big community celebration at Central Standard.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

People need to get some dates on the calendar for the new shoe drop and all the D-Waite activities and empty their bank account and have a great time that's right doing so. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Travel and leisure uh said that Milwaukee has the perfect summer experience in an article today. So I think we just like made the case for them. We wrote we wrote the next 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

I agree. I'm I'm really excited after this, you know, little chat, and uh we only got through the month of June. Other than the D Wade event we've got to do it. Touched up just touch of July. Just graced it. Um anything else?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

I mean, look, we could go on literally, we could go on forever. Our calendar of events is stacked. Uh, people if if anyone's ever looking for something to do, I encourage you to just go to visitmilwaukee.org and look at our calendar of events. There's probably 30 to 40 events almost daily, especially in the summer. Uh we do uh we actually partner with the theater district and uh Lakefront Brewery, um Bluebat, uh actually Village, the Wawatosa Village, and several others on it's a live uh busker series, so live free music throughout the community all summer long. We'll be announcing that lineup soon uh as well. So from June through uh August, free music all over the place throughout the city. Um so there's just all I mean, there's always something going on, and we're not even we haven't even gotten into like the concerts that are at Pfizer Forum, the concerts that are at the Pepst Theater Group venues. Yeah. Um, you know, it's it's non-stop all the time. So you just you have to find a place where where is it all at? Visit Milwaukee.org.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

You guys do do an amazing job with that calendar. And then thank you for all you do for the city and all the amazing stuff you guys have going on. Always, always love having you in here. All right, everyone. I hope you're pumped for summer in Milwaukee. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible, Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company, Annex Wealth Management, and our friends over at Nikola.