Milwaukee’s First Annual Fresh Coast Jazz Festival Scheduled for Labor Day Weekend

Milwaukee – August 12, 2019 – Milwaukee Jazz Festival Inc. has announced that the first annual Fresh Coast Jazz Festival will be held over Labor Day Weekend at Uihlein Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. The organization hopes the three-day musical celebration will bring jazz back to the City of Festivals in a big way. The inaugural event will feature a roster of contemporary jazz luminaries and a broad array of activity and ticket packages designed to provide patrons with an unrivaled jazz festival experience, while showcasing the best of Milwaukee.

The festival line-up includes jazz superstars like Lee Ritenour, Ronnie Laws, Lindsey Webster, Raul Midón, Norman Brown, Jazz Funk Soul and more. There will also be special performances by Home Town All-Stars – artists who hail from Wisconsin and have played all over the world with top names in music.

Ticket packages can be purchased at https://www.freshcoastjazz.com/ or https://www.marcuscenter.org/show/fresh-coast-jazz-festival-milwaukee/. All seating is reserved, so tickets are limited, but there is a package available for every taste and budget including:

VIP Package – This top-tier package includes premium reserved seats to all Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows. VIP ticket holders will be able to select a seat and retain it for the duration of the festival. They can choose between a unique wine and music pairing experience or the Fresh Coast Cruise along the lakeshore. The VIP experience also includes exclusive access to meet and greets with the artists, along with a commemorative lanyard.

Gold Package – Great reserved seats to Friday, Saturday and Sunday Concerts. Gold ticket holders will be able to select a seat and retain it for the duration of the festival.

Silver Package – Reserved seats to Friday, Saturday and Sunday Concerts. Silver ticket holders will be able to select a seat and retain it for the duration of the festival.

Single Show Tickets – Single day, reserved seat tickets to Friday, Saturday or Sunday concerts.

A lifelong jazz fan, former Milwaukee advertising executive and philanthropist Carl Brown came up with the inspiration for the festival after attending a jazz performance in Indianapolis and realizing that there was a cultural gap in Milwaukee that the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival could fill.  He also recognized the potential for the annual event to raise funds for meaningful giving such as scholarships, grants and research funds. He took the idea to Paul Matthews, president at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, with whom Brown had collaborated on other projects. Matthews thought it would be a great fit, particularly in light of the Marcus Center’s upcoming 50th anniversary. After vetting the viability of the festival, Brown founded Milwaukee Jazz Festival Inc. to produce the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival. Multiple prominent area businesses have already raised their hands to be part of bringing Jazz back to Milwaukee through festival sponsorships.

“Most world-class cities have a signature jazz festival,” said Brown. “Milwaukee is a world-class city and it was high time we had one too. Contemporary jazz attracts an extremely diverse audience, transcending gender or race, so it is an ideal genre to bring people together through music. And, as someone who believes deeply in giving back to my community, my personal aspiration is for this festival to grow into an annual source of philanthropic funding for education, the arts and medical research.”

For more information please contact Carl Brown at Carl@mkejazz.com or 414-477-8770. To purchase ticket packages visit https://www.freshcoastjazz.com/ or https://www.marcuscenter.org/show/fresh-coast-jazz-festival-milwaukee/

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.