Daily Updates!!!

Sunday July 8, Day 11

The day could not be more perfect. It was warm, it was dry, not a cloud in the sky and the humidity from yesterday had vanished! That was about time a day like this arrived! And it had to happen on the last day of this year’s Summerfest!

Yes, again, it has arrived. The final day. This is it! Time to do everything you haven’t done or tried yet, because it’s gonna be another long year before you can do it again.

In the beginning, I was a little worried, because after parking ($10 this time), it felt cool stepping out of the parking structure. But once inside, it was like the temperature rose just enough to make it very pleasant.

Let me see. Lots of stuff to do today. No major acts early on, so it was probably the time to just walk around and suck up as much ‘Fest as possible, before it was too late!

As usual, I entered the Rock stage area to get the first Point of the day, which would most likely be the last Point of this year’s ‘Fest. And what’s for din-din? Well, I kind of saved this for last: Thai. So I went to King and I to check out the menu. Lots of people must have had the same idea, because the lines were mile-long! Had to bite the bullet so the wait was on. Finally, got a Combo, medium spicy. That was no doubt the most delicious food I have had at the ‘Fest this year. It was fantastic! To really cross the i’s and dot the t’s , or whatever, I got a Leinie’s Red to go with that. Bravo!

After this feast, it was time to start moving around. There was intense activity at all stages so the fest grounds were cookin’. Last spasms of this year, I guess. It was not as packed at they were saying on the radio. But not bad for the last Sunday. Most likely, the nice weather helped in that respect.

By coincidence,  I found myself in front of the Water St. Pavilion. Yeah, coincidence, my ass! Whatever! Now I was there I might as well climb upstairs for a Weiss. There was room to sit down at this time, but before that, I went to the edge to take a picture of the masses pouring into the Marcus for Bon Jovi. As you may have noticed, I haven’t mentioned any events at this place yet this year. It’s simple, I didn’t have tickets for any of the shows this ‘Fest, tonight’s included. Too damn expensive this time around!  

After sitting there for some time, enjoying the Weiss, it was time to go check out the action on the Rock Stage. Bigger Than You was on stage doing a pretty good heavy metal job! From there went to the Sprecher area, via the Leinie stage, where a few folks were gathered, watching a band struggling to keep it together(!)

On stage at Sprecher was a band called American Standard belting out some pretty interesting blues. Good music, but find another, more catchy name, damn it! Had a good time there, but on to the next! It was time to go check out space at the stages where the major head liners were going to play. Only to find, that people were packing into these areas. On the way, I passed the WISN 12 stage, and the band there was playing a Guns And Roses song. That made me stop and listen. It was just this one gal and a couple of guys and they were doing quite well. Next, they did a Pink Floyd tune. I tip my hat!

So, what was it gonna be first, Wallflowers, Blues Traveler or Bobby Rush. The latter was at the Sprecher stage, and it seemed like the easiest to get into. Not bad. And to top it off, he had some good looking babes shaking bootie on stage with him.

Next stop was the Big Backside (I’m sorry, -yard) where Zimmerman, Jr. and his Wallflowers were pumping out tunes. I an not exactly a big fan of these guys, but I thought they sounded very good. Of course, I had to get a picture, so I used my sneaky ways to get close. Same tactics were used later on at the Miller stage, where Blues Traveler were really rocking the crowd. It was hard to chose where to end the ‘Fest this year, but I decided to stay at the Miller area, which also made it easy to run to Martino’s for this year’s final Chicago Style Hot Dog, which was enjoyed vigorously in the rear of that area!

Anything else I should do before it was all over for this time? Well, maybe go check for good discounted Summerfest merchandise items at the store, it was right there! Nothing fancy in there, though. Not too many interesting T shirts this year! I wanted to get a new cap for my Summerfest pins, but I didn’t find one. Didn’t they have any this year?

So how about this year’s ‘Fest? I think it was a pretty good one, no major weather events. In other words. It went smooth with a bunch of good music. I would have appreciated more of certain very lovely females’ company. Yes, you know who you are! But otherwise, I had a splendid time this year. See you for Opening Day in about 354 days. I can’t wait! Or maybe we should try another “half way” reunion, hopefully we can make it better than the last one. Had to immortalize my last moments at the ‘Fest by taking a pic of the exit gate. I outa here!

Epilog
I always appreciate as much feed-back as you are willing to give me. I have fun doing these updates, but if nobody reads them, what’s the point?

You may like what I do or possibly dislike it. You may agree with me or disagree with me. Please drop me a line, I would really like to hear from you! Email address is as usual henrikbnielsen@msn.com.

Don’t be shy now, if I don’t hear from a lot of folks, I may reduce this to just cover Opening Day next year!  

Thank you for your support!