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As Summerfest gets ready to launch the 2019 Big Gig next week, Milwaukee World Festivals officials invited the media in for a peek at the recently completed new Uline Warehouse Stage on the far north end of the Henry Maier Festival Grounds.
This year, the stage, which for years had been called the "rock stage," hosts Walk the Moon, Collective Soul, Jimmy Eat World, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Rodrigo y Gabriela and others.
The new stage, designed by Eppstein Uhen Architects and built by C.G. Schmidt, has a rustic vibe, almost like a modern construction in a state park, with a canopy and supports of locally sourced cedar and structural supports veneered in local limestone.
Here are some architectural renderings of the new stage, released in January:
"We’ve brought a little bit of the Northwoods to the north gate," said Uline VP of Customer Development, Brian Shenker, at an "unveiling" of the stage on Thursday morning.
"We’ve hit a new high point with this new venue. It brings a whole new vibrancy to the north end.
Just inside the sleek new north entrance gate and plaza, which opened last year, the new Uline Warehouse stage has a larger performance area for performers, with expanded audio, lighting and other production capabilities, and updated dressing rooms, as well as a new production office.
There is also bigger seating area and a wider entrance, all of which means the Uline can accommodate bigger acts than in the past.
There's also a new bar area, an elevated VIP space with a dedicated bar and restrooms, an upgraded ADA-accessible viewing area in front, a guest services area and, for the first time, a video screen to the right of the stage.
The Uline stage got its last makeover in 2003.
Festival organizers also unveiled the first completed phase of the new American Family Insurance Amphitheater on the opposite end of the grounds this week.
Here are some photos of the upgraded Uline Warehouse stage:
The entrance
The view from the stage
The stage ceiling
The VIP area
Backstage
Dressing room
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.
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