Summerfest Attendance 8% Higher Than Last Year
But was still below numbers for pre-pandemic two-week format.
People file out of Summerfest on the last night of the 2021 festival. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Summerfest attendance was up 8% this year.
Host Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. recorded 602,231 visitors this year. That’s 8% more than last year’s rain-soaked festival, when festival officials blamed a 10% drop in attendance on the rain that fell six out of nine days. Approximately 20% of visitors used one of 13 different admission promotions to attend the festival this year.
Despite the bump, attendance was still lower than it was in 2023, when the festival had 624,407 people visit. That year marked a major return of the festival’s audience after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even with lower attendance than previous years, acts including Hozier, The Killers, and Benson Boone sold out shows at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. And a handful of acts brought in crowds to the BMO Pavilion that tested the capacity. As with years past, more than 600 artists played the festival across 12 different stages.
To meet its 501(c)(3) nonprofit obligations, Milwaukee World Festival collected more than $11,900 in hygiene products for Mary Lou’s Closet, which provides them to local students; more than 4,850 children’s books for Next Door, an organization working on literacy; and 24,000 meals were donated through Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and Northcott Neighborhood House.
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I wish it’d move back to its old format. It’s never been the same after the change and attendance numbers will continue to reflect that.