Locust Street Festival Returns June 11

Locust Street Festival. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Riverwest‘s Locust Street Festival is set to return in full force this summer, following several years of cancellations.

Come June 11, several blocks of E. Locust Street — from N. Holton to N. Humboldt — will be closed to traffic and open to food, drink and merchandise vendors, live music and other special events.

The Beer Run will also make a triumphant return. Registered participants will receive a t-shirt and the equivalent of one full beer, doled out across four stops along a 1.8-mile loop.

The festival was last held in 2019; events in 2020 and 2021 were canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The festival almost made its comeback last summer, but was canceled less than a month before the event date.

In its place, a host of alternate mini-festivals popped up in 2022. Black Husky Brewing organized “Worst Locust Street Festival,” while the owners of Klinger’s East threw a retirement party to celebrate the conclusion of 46 years in business. A block to the east, Linneman’s Riverwest Inn hosted “Celebrate Riverwest,” complete with festival mainstay Sigmund Snopek blowing his 12-foot matterhorn.

Tim Eichinger, owner of Black Husky, is organizing the festival’s return in partnership with the nonprofit Garden Park Association. Two of the festival’s longtime coordinators, Linda and Peter Wolbersen, will not return this year. The couple announced their retirements from that role in February.

The festival began in 1976 to celebrate the neighborhood’s victory against the city’s plan to widen Locust Street. Each year, the one-day festival marks the unofficial kickoff of Milwaukee’s summer festival season.

The festival is accepting vendor, band and sponsor inquiries. For more information, email tim@blackhuskybrewing.com.

Festival updates will be posted to the event’s Facebook page.

2017 Photos

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