A Taste of Chicago vs. Summerfest comparison in today's Chicagotribune.com begins, "They're firing brat salvos at us and folks, it's not pretty."
Seems that Milwaukee isn't the only city with a minor inferiority complex. The Chicago story continues, "Milwaukee is about 90 minutes away from Chicago, and its very own food and entertainment spectacular, Summerfest, is running the same time as our food and entertainment spectacular, Taste of Chicago."
Another comparision of the two fests appeared in Time Out, Chicago. This national city guide pub compares the two on many levels. Under "festgoers," it notes, "Still, we’ll raise a can of PBR to trailer-park chic over Taste’s Bud-fueled brawlers any day." And, for "music line-ups" the prize also is given to "Milwaukee's Summerfest." Time Out says, "Festheads have lamented the fact that the lineup has been skewing Boomer (ladies and gentlemen, Bon Jovi!) and moving away from hip-hop, but with ten stages of tunes you’re sure to find something you can shake your moneymaker to. Guinness World Records went so far as to bestow the title of World’s Biggest Music Festival on the “Big Gig.” Winner."
So, it's on, baby! Have you been to Taste lately? Tickets to buy food, no real grounds (it's at Grant Park) to speak of and sure, it's free, but you get what you pay for, right?
Honestly, the music is quite similar since many bands stop in both markets during summer or any other season. I would say, though, that Summerfest has an overall better musical variety and much better venue.
But, reality is that you can easily do both and we, as passionate Milwaukeeans, love that our neighbor, Chicago, is trying to out do us.
Here's to Taste of Chicago and here's to Summerfest! Whatever your music fest pleasure, I say "Go Brewers!" Case closed.
Read the "smack down" chicagotribune.com and timeout.com/chicago stories for yourself below.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
