With less than a week until the day Summerfest 2020 was going to open, with the Beebs on the expanded Amp stage, it's understandable you might be a little down.
To try and brighten your mood, the folks over at the Big Gig are hoping you'll make your own summer fun at home and are offering a small token to help you do it in Summerfest style.
Sitting on a mountain of 2020 koozies, Summerfest wants to share them with you.
So, this Saturday, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., head over the American Family Insurance Amphitheater / Summerfest Box Office, 639 E. Summerfest Pl. at the
Henry Maier Festival Park and grab up to four 16-ounce can coolers.
Some of the Summerfest food vendors – like Famous Dave’s, Charcoal Grill, Pitch’s/Miss Katie’s, Saz’s and Pizza Man will also have limited quantities of koozies available.
Please respect social distancing rules while waiting. The coolers will be handed out through the box office windows to minimize contact and ground markers will help show 6 feet of distance.
On the day the Big Gig was supposed to start – June 24 – Summerfest launches its new branded merch via its website.
During the initial announced run of the festival – June 24-July 5 – post a photo or video of your own DIY Summerfest (smart folks will make sure that koozy is featured), using the hashtag #DIYSummerfest on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram and you could win tickets to next year’s Big Gig.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
