Summerfest Unveils New Food Offerings
Dozens of new festival eats for this year's festival, plus two new bar areas and 55th anniversary swag.
Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Photo by Sophie Bolich.
Summerfest, long-proclaimed “The World’s Largest Music Festival,” has in recent years been taking steps to deliver not just roof-raising performances, but also unique and craveable festival eats.
Summerfest on Wednesday afternoon unveiled its food and beverage offerings for this year’s festival. The lineup includes both returning vendors and fresh faces, as well as a plethora of new offerings including ice cream flights, zero-proof spirits and a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-stuffed sandwich.
Milwaukee’s annual music festival, presented by American Family Insurance, will celebrate its 55th anniversary this summer. Summerfest will take place over the course of three weekends: June 22 through 24, June 29 through July 1 and July 6 through 8.
Along with returning festival favorites including Cedar Crest Ice Cream, Charcoal Grill & Rotisserie, Cousins Subs, Saz’s and Ultimate Confections, a handful of new vendors will join the 2023 lineup. Chubby’s Wings, Ian’s Pizza, Johnsonville Summerville, Mac-A-Do’s and Nashville North are among the newcomers.
At Ian’s, guests can expect popular slices from the pizza restaurant’s existing locations, including mac and cheese pizza, Smokey the Bandit pizza, cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza and breadsticks with Ranch dipping sauce.
Johnsonville, which recently landed a sponsorship role at the festival, will offer a sampling of its sausages, as well as Summerville nachos and bratwurst.
Mac-A-Do’s is coming in hot with its Swine Mac, a kitchen sink-style mac and cheese bowl topped with barbeque sauce, crushed chips, pickles and numerous other additions.
Nashville North, which opened on Brady Street just before last year’s festival, will offer a classic Nashville hot chicken sandwich.
Additional new menu items include Sweet Thai Chili Tenders from American Family Insurance Amphitheater Concessions, Cousins Subs’ Cheetos Flamin’ Hot Cheese Steak — paired with a cherry-lime shake to cool the burn — and Seedlip zero-proof cocktails, among more than 30 others.
Two New Bars
The 2023 festival will also include two additional bar areas, Summerfest announced Wednesday.
The first, called Keg & Cask, will be located on the south end of the grounds, offering 12 tap beers from Terrapin, Hop Valley and Leinenkugel’s. Craft cocktails, such as the Five Trail Sweet & Sour, will also be available, along with drafts of the exclusive Summerfest 55th Anniversary beer, while supplies last.
The anniversary beer will be available at several additional locations throughout the festival.
STARRY Bar with Pepsi will also join the lineup this year. Located along the waterfront, the new bar will serve cocktails, mocktails and samples of Starry, a new lemon-lime soda from PepsiCo. Visitors to STARRY Bar will also be able to design custom STARRY swag and strike a pose inside the 360-degree studio.
For a full list of food and beverage options available during Summerfest, including vegan and vegetarian options, visit the Summerfest website.
Anniversary Apparel
In celebration of the festival’s 55th anniversary, Summerfest will offer a variety of commemorative items and apparel. The limited-edition 55th-anniversary line, created by The Specialized Marketing Group, includes Summerfest-branded apparel, accessories and specialty products such as drinkware. During the festival, shoppers can visit one of three Summerfest Store locations throughout the park to purchase merchandise.
Items can also be purchased online ahead of the festival.
Photos
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