The Wisconsin Beer Lovers Festival is always a good time…read more For an admission price of $60, you gain entrance, a souvenir tasting glass, and unlimited beer and food samples for the duration of the event (which for regular admission price, runs from 1-5pm, or you can pay a bit more to get in a bit earlier). Tons of amazing Wisconsin breweries and eateries are represented at the festival. Highlights for me on the food front were Bar Louie, who brought some amazing soft pretzels that they then dipped in some pretty rockin' queso and Maple Leaf Farms who were offering some duck meatballs that pretty much rocked my socks. As for beer...oh my gosh--with roughly 50 breweries representing--so much Wisconsin goodness! We had a blast trying the many wonderful offerings. There was definitely a beer to suit every palate. The festival takes place at the Bayshore Town Center (on the outdoor streets, which were blocked to traffic). In addition to beer and food, they have live music the duration of the event. Definitely an event I look forward to enjoying again and again. Get to it!

This was so much fun! I had never heard of it before but it is definitely worth it if you like…read morebeer, food, and live music. Luckily there's enough parking in the mall parking garages that we didn't have to look for a spot for long. There were so many breweries I love from Milwaukee & Madison and a ton I had never heard of before too. It was fun to try different versions of my favorites kinds of beer and plenty of new different flavors as well. (Buckets to dump them if you don't like it or want to not get drunk and try more.) A lot of people brought little lanyards or carriers for their tasting class which was smart because there were not a lot of high tops to set down your beer and a lot of the food required more than one hand. That being said there was an amazing variety of food. They had everything from salad, lettuce wrap shrimp tacos, specialty popcorn, cheese, pretzels with beer cheese, potstickers, Mac & cheese, bbq pizza, cold cut sandwiches, fudge, cookies, and more. A lot of places offered coupons or giveaways or things to buy too. The best part is the lines were never too long so you could definitely stop at every vendor if you had a few hours and weren't too full!

Brady Street Festival 2022 was back and people were out with a vengeance. I was in New Orleans this…read morepast spring, and I don't think Bourbon Street on a Saturday night holds a candle to the frenetic drunk energy on Saturday night at Brady Street Festival, actually. Pros- One of the most diverse festivals in Milwaukee, good food vendors, good music lineups, good artisan vendors Cons- Overly Crowded, sprawling, a drunk fest with music (as an aside?), a surcharge on credit cards at Festival drink tents, people getting overserved Dryhootch Veterans house had a great R&B Veterans band, good food- Nomad staff were working hard and had a great party out back, as well. The main music stages have good local acts in a variety of styles, such as Negative Positive, Browns Crew, GuhGuhGoldDuhDuh (haha) throughout the day. I got some great tacos, and Elotes Mexican Street Corn. There is a lot of good food vendors here. Brady Street Festival is really great for the bars on Brady- as they set up shop w/slushies, liquor drinks, Mai Tais and the like, and the bars are bustling. But aye, there's the rub- our crowd of music dancers and watchers of De La Buena got physically plowed by people who by 7pm were already...plowed! Of course Brady Street Festival is 100% Brady Street, glad to have you back.

First time going to The Brady Street Festival it was a good experience. Went with my daughter and…read moremy grandson. Well I wanted to eat some of their food but my daughter said another time, Iwanted some of the waffle fries that was in one of the stands. I had great people saying hi to me, got along fine with some people there. Got a free shirt but just walking by a shirt stand. Thank you, at least they was nice. Maybe if they have the Festival again for next year I'll be there ready for anything and eat the food, have more fun. Stay a bit longer. Love that they had bikers doing great stunts and the guys that with the drums doing stepping music. Took a pic of The Godfathers picture they had outside a restaurant. Thank you.

SoundBites is a pretty rad event…read more This annual event is a fundraiser for 88.9 Radio Milwaukee at the oh-so-swank Iron Horse Hotel, and this year, Yelp MKE sponsored the event/donated all the headphones for attendees. Rad, right? Sure, the ticket price is a little steep, maybe, but it's a fundraiser which means that first and foremost the idea is to raise funds. The concept: food + music pairs, and well. The attendee enjoys one, carefully selected song based on a restaurant's featured dish and listens/eats/enjoys all at once. The tuneage and vittles are designed to be complimentary... that's the hook! Each restaurant/chef table is paired with an 88.9 DJ who (wo)mans their listening station and boom: Esoteric French pop pairs with Lake Park Bistro, Prince's "Breakfast Can Wait" pairs will Goodkind's delightful pancake dish... you get the idea. A few complimentary booze/wine tastings dot the landscape, there are cash bars as well. This year, while I loved almost everything I tried, I believe the universal "winningest" dish amongst the Yelp attendee consensus was Balzac's falafel taco, which is sadly not on their regular menu. (If I start a petition and deliver it to Balzac, would you guys sign it? I mean, I'd be there eating that thing at least once per week and you all probably would be too... ) Yay local music, yay Iron Horse, yay 88.9 and yay Milwaukee!

Off the charts fun. The food was amazing and it was great to try samples from restaurants we have…read moreet to visit. We left with several priceless action items. Can't wait for next year.

I am not sure what happen to this festival, I was highly disappointed in the 2026 Festa Italiana…read more This fest used to be awesome every stage lit up with music filled with people, this is not the case anymore, the assortment of food was very disappointing, we came up from Chicago to spend the weekend and enjoy the fest, but I couldn't even find an Italian Ice stand!!!!! Come on at an Italian fest and no Ice!!! This is nothing like it used to be 10 years ago. I will not be back. I gave it two stars just because the grounds are amazing but the fest needs to a huge improvement or I will never come back.

My first Festa Italiana in over 10 years and it's still an okay fest. I found free street parking…read morenearby- but most parking within easy walking distance is just $8. Buy tix ahead of time online to save a few bucks, or check for deals, like bringing in a red Sendik's bag for free admission. This small fest is nice that it's not that crowded, and has a mix of Italian cultural elements, with normal entertainment options. I enjoyed getting caught up in a parade with the UW marching band, Festa dignitaries in old cars, some Firenze drill team, and oversized puppets. There's lots of wine here, but few good beer options. Food options are limited and fairly pricey. I had a good but small entree of lasagna w/vodka sauce from diCarlo's, and also some excellent roast corn. Of the better non-Italian entertainment, the Heart cover band Dog 'n' Butterfly was excellent, and Gin Blossoms weren't bad, as their set overlapped an excellent fireworks display that could be heard for miles and miles, apparently.

The worlds largest Irish festival every years is held down at the Summerfest grounds on the Lake…read more I highly recommend anyone of Irish heritage to make this event at least one time in their lives. It is hard to believe a town like Milwaukee has a better tradition than Boston, Chicago, New York or Savannah when it comes to a true Irish festival....but they do.....this is why Milwaukee is known as "the City of festivals" and this one is the King. Great drink, great music, fun people and a 4 day party starting usually the 3rd week in August. I hope to see fellow Yelpers out at Irish Fest and some of the other great festivals Milwaukee has to offer............."slainte"

Mittenfest is fun, from a people watching perspective, cause that's all we got to do. It's also a…read morecool place to get some grub as Iron Grate BBQ and many other businesses were down there serving up the goods. It's not the place to get your drink on though as the lines are notoriously long, actually more like ridiculously long! I am a grown person and do not, I repeat, do not stand in line, especially for 45 minutes to an hour. Maybe I would for some things, but not just to get a damn beer, no way! We wound up elsewhere to partake in libations and made a general quick appearance just to see what all the fuss is about. Not sure if I'll be attending this again.All I really wanted to enjoy was a few beers but we walked away briefly enjoying only the scene...

First to review! Boom!…read more (Of course, it's because up until now, no one had added a Mittenfest business listing to Yelp, I myself guilty and probably a more culpable culprit than the rest of you alls.) So, a quick FYI before reviewing. (read: this is a Yelpy public service announcement... ) If a business or event - and event not meaning someone's super bowl party or birthday or whatever, but event as in something large-scale and public in nature that occurs each and every year and contributes to the cultural landscape of MKE - is not already on Yelp, you... yes YOU... can just add it. It's super easy on desktop and even easier from your phone. I added a biz listing for a bar on Friday night that wasn't even on Yelp at all and did so in like a minute flat. Internetninja. Alright, now that that's out of the way, Mittenfest! First to review! Bam. I love Mittenfest. It's a great annual event for a great cause that showcases and highlights a few of things about Milwaukee that make me love this town so hard. +An outdoor street festival in the middle of winter? Check. Embrace your Milwaukeeness and your midwesternness and just get down with the snow and cold. It's good for you and it makes you feel alive. +Get a bunch of people together, donate $$/food/clothes for Hunger Task Force and drink some extra crafty beers and enjoy barrel aged Old Fashioneds and value-added Valentine coffee while catching rad local bands and catching up w/ friends? Yes please. +Local artists/crafters selling some locally-made wares? Bonus. +Goodkind's bone broth forever, please and thankyou. +A solid community vibe, stellar people watching, great drinks, and a general "down to hang" attitude despite weather. Someone said it best when they said this yesterday: "Any excuse Milwaukee can get its hands on to be outside and drink, it will gladly take." So yes. This event is a super-fab annual gathering of good times and good cause that aims to either embrace Milwaukee winter or give it a big fat proverbial middle finger, whichever way you prefer to look at it. In the last few years, popularity of this street festival has soared and with humble beginnings now having grown into 2700 "joins" on Facebox, there's no denying the fact that the festival's facing some growing pains. This is normal. Lines (sometimes long) are normal and should be expected at an event of this physical size (small-ish) and attendance (large-ish). A couple thoughts or potential bits of insight for the organizers as they navigate this growth... -set-up: Brandyland is perpendicular to the street, so there's really no doing anything about having a line cut the festival square in half unless you could use the sidewalk as a line instead. For the most part, people are courteous about lines and not cutting, but the organization game could definitely be upped a touch all things considering. Using natural boundaries or DIY stanchions could be helpful insofar as queues go, too. -I feel like a jerk calling this out, but $9 feels pretty steep for those OFs given the size and the wait. I know costs associated w/ putting this thing on are certainly there: Burnhearts probably has to pay the bands and pay for the permits and port-a-potties but, keepin' it real: the price on those puppies definitely made me stop at one when I otherwise might not have. -Is it crazy to suggest pushing this whole shebang a little further? With the good MF does for a solid cause coupled with its local popularity, seems to me that this winter festival definitely has the potential for growth, both in physical size and scale of offerings. If the City permitting office would allow Burnhearts to close Logan from Potter to KK, food trucks or other restaurants could come hang to provide more food, you could offset lines by having more beer choices, more port-a-potties, a larger area for artists/vendors, areas that are more "family-friendly" in nature, etc... just spitballing here, but seems totally plausible to me should it be something the organizers are interested in. Thanks for hosting this thing year over year, Burnhearts! I may be wrong on this, but I believe Mittenfest is MKE's only outdoor winter street festival at this point. People clearly love it and rightfully so; the concept is great, the cause is stellar, it's quality local art and libations, and it's a great excuse for community to come together and drink outdoors in boots and parkas. Well done.

Fun place to watch games! Lots to do- plenty of games, great for a family. Not a huge selection for…read moredrinks but still tasty options. Nice guy at the counter.

I was surprised at how large this brewery is. I had their pistachio cream ale. It was ok but not as…read moregood as others I have had. The amber that I had was fine. I loved seeing that they had pizzas and snacks. For $9 I got a frozen pepperoni pizza and it was exactly what I wanted. Trivia night was going on when we were there and they seemed to have a decent crowd. Staff was friendly and made good suggestions.

I hit another item on my bucket list this summer in Milwaukee- going to the Dragon Boat Festival…read more We arrived about 11:30 am and parking was really full! It was so much fun to see the teams and the boats on the water. There were some food vendors. Most teams had tents on the grounds. It's a friendly competition and a fun event. Another free and fun festival to enjoy in Milwaukee.

My husband & I stumbled across this festival because we were on our way to another festival…read more It was cool to see the boats racing & cheering them on. There were a lot of stands with food and activities for people to do. I would definitely go to this festival again.