| Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Summerfest in Milwaukee, the nation’s largest music festival, is on the move again.
Originally set for a three-day weekend trio starting on June 24, Summerfest Tuesday announced that the 2021 festival is being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The new dates are September 2 to 4, 9 to 11 and 16 to 18.
Don Smiley, president and CEO of Summerfest’s parent company, Milwaukee World Festival Inc., told Journal Sentinel that the festival made the decision to postpone it last week.
“Optimism is high due to the vaccines that exist, but we agreed that it would take longer to vaccinate the wider community than the June 24 start date would allow,” said Smiley. “From the health professionals we spoke to in and outside Wisconsin, along with other government officials at the state and local levels, we are encouraged that anyone who wants a vaccine by the summer will be able to get it.”
“We see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he continued. “We just need to see a little more closely.”
Experts in the live music industry told Journal Sentinel that collective immunity through vaccination would be crucial if the shows were to return in greater numbers after the venues closed in March. and almost all the artists on tour got off the road.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, suggested that 75% to 85% of the population would need to be vaccinated to reach that limit, suggesting at a press conference at the White House in January that it could be reached in late summer .
Before the news of Summerfest on Tuesday, other major music festivals in the United States – including Bonnaroo in Tennessee, Governor’s Ball in New York and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival – announced that they would postpone their festivals, normally scheduled for May and June, to September and October.
On Friday, Coachella in California, the world’s leading music festival, canceled its April dates. Makeup dates have not been announced.
The change in the festival landscape was also felt in Milwaukee. PrideFest – initially scheduled for June 3-6 at Maier Festival Park – announced last week that it was canceling its June dates.
“It is not yet clear how (or if) public meetings will take place in 2021, and we cannot risk the health and well-being of our community by putting the festival ahead of the people it serves,” Wes Shaver, president of Milwaukee Pride Inc ., said in a statement.
In an interview with Journal Sentinel, Shaver said that organizers usually begin planning the logistics of a festival six months in advance, but due to uncertainty, city licensing departments were not issuing licenses for the original PrideFest window in June.
Summerfest also lost one of its 2021 headliners before Tuesday’s postponement. Pop star Halsey announced on January 22 that she was canceling her summer tour, which was scheduled to stop at Summerfest’s American Family Insurance Amphitheater on July 3.
Halsey was one of eight amphitheater headliners who were announced for 2020 that moved their Summerfest shows to 2021. The others are Guns N ‘Roses, Justin Bieber, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews Band, Blink-182 and Khalid.
In a press release released on Tuesday, Summerfest officials said they are working to try to reschedule these programs and that they will have more information in the coming weeks.
“The agents and bands have been great to work with and very cooperative and understanding of the whole situation,” said Smiley.
Suggesting that the 2021 unannounced schedule was “stellar”, Smiley said he hoped the festival could reveal the full schedule of September’s Big Gig headlining “sooner or later”.
“This is not our decision unilaterally,” said Smiley. “It takes coordination between the bands and the agents and so on to advertise.”
It is the second consecutive year in which the jewel of the 53-year-old crown of the City of Festivals has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which has canceled virtually all collective events in the country since last March.
Last year, the Summerfest 11-day window from late June to early July was postponed for a series of three three-day weekends in September. These dates were also canceled, marking the first cancellation of Summerfest in its history.
Summerfest 2021 is expected to mark the delayed opening of the 23,000-person American Family Insurance Amphitheater, renovated over a two-year period for $ 51.3 million. The amphitheater is also scheduled to host five shows in 2021 outside the Summerfest originally scheduled for 2020, featuring KISS, Maroon 5, Hall & Oates, Black Crowes and Santana with Earth, Wind and Fire. These shows are still scheduled from July to September.
Fest staff are also rebuilding their playground and family area, now called Northwestern Mutual Community Park, and transforming the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse stage into Generac Power Stage, after a sponsorship change. Both projects are scheduled to be completed in June, and all three upgraded facilities may open to the public before Summerfest in September, according to a press release.
Traditionally hosting more than 800 bands and 700,000 fans each year, Summerfest is a major boost to the area’s economy, with an annual impact of $ 187 million in Milwaukee and an additional $ 39 million filtered by the state, according to a 2013 study by Tourism Economics. Summerfest employed 2,225 seasonal employees in 2019.
But after canceling Summerfest last year, and canceling all events at Maier Festival Park, Milwaukee World Festival reported a loss of $ 10.4 million before depreciation to 2020, with its cash balances falling to the historic low of $ 5.1 million, and is expected to decline further to about $ 3.8 million this year.
“September is one of the most beautiful months of the year, and we would start on the Labor Day weekend,” said Smiley. “We think there is so much demand for live music and shows that, if we get to the point where there is a green light for us, we think we will do a lot of business.”
Achieving this green light is far from guaranteed, with the launch of the vaccine in the early stages and potential complications on the horizon of recently discovered variants.
But if, in September, conditions still require reduced capacity at an event like Summerfest, Smiley said it would be difficult to achieve.
“If you have artists A, B and C earning X amount of money in the amphitheater, and some kind of (capacity) restriction is imposed on us, the math doesn’t work … unless the artist works at a discount” , he said .
Can we see other precautions from the pandemic era at Summerfest, such as imposing mask requirements or quick tests for fans, similar to the protocols used for professional athletes and staff?
“I don’t think anyone has an answer right now. It will become clearer over time,” said Smiley.
But he said that “there are likely to be some other complications for the festival that we have never dealt with before.”
“Normally, we would try to come up with new ideas to change the festival, but we have to keep our eyes on the basics.… There will be problems with the way we deal with sanitation and how gates are operated for people who come and go, and so on. My message to our team is really to simplify this year. We are going to have really good music, delicious food and really cold Miller beer. “
All Summerfest 2020 and 2021 general admission tickets will be awarded for September dates. Refunds are available at the point of purchase, with more information available at summerfest.com. Refund information for Summerfest shows at the amphitheater will be announced after each show has been rescheduled or canceled.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks about shows, local music and more at “TAP’d In” with Jordan Lee. Listen at 8am on Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9) or wherever you have your podcasts.