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MobCraft Beer once again celebrates its anniversary – the 11th! – with Weird Fest street festival on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 11:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. in the taproom, 505 S. 5th St., and outside on Virginia Street.
In addition to beer, of course, there will be Mondo Lucha wrestling, live music, food, street performers, face painters, vendors and more at the free festival.
The centerpiece will be the annual release of weird limited beers, which this year include:
- Bloody Mary Brunch – Spicy Bloody Mary inspired beer
- Baja Buds – Lemon-lime Weiss with blue raspberry
- 5 Pepper Amber – MobCraft Amber with garden hot peppers
- A1 Since Day 1 – Kolsch reminiscent of barbecue steak sauce – evoking smoky, sweet and tangy notes
There will also be the special 11th anniversary barrel-aged Crush smoothie-style beer available in extremely limited four-pack cans to go and on draft. Lots of MobCraft flagships, seasonals limited-releases and crowdsourced beers on hand, too.
The in-house menu includes specialty food items and pizza, while K&L Barbeque will serve smoked meats and sides and Style Pop Café will be have coffee drinks, bagged coffee, egg rolls and baked goods.
As for entertainment, there will be live music by Jump the Bluff at 11:30 a.m., Cozy Danger at 1 and 2:15 p.m. and Dad Strength at 4 and 5:45 p.m.
Plus, Mondo Lucha wrestlers at 12:30 p.m. and five more times, including a final match at 7, and Mermaid Echo will be swimming in a custom-built water tank throughout the event.
Also returning to Weird Fest is the World's Smallest Island Party, where a 15-minute reservation secures two seats and a tropical drink at the world's smallest tiki bar.
"We are excited to welcome back vendor favorites like Canni, Fishing for Bangers, and Style Pop Cafe for this year's Weird Fest," says MobCraft's Event & Programming Manager Elise Strupp. “Along with three live bands, street performers and Mondo Lucha wrestling, we are excited to welcome Mermaid Echo to the fest to entertain both kids and adults. We have more local makers vending than ever before.
"It’s going to be our biggest and best Weird Fest yet!”
For complete details on performers, entertainment schedules and more, visit the Weird Fest webpage.
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.
