Pridefest in Milwaukee is quite the experience. There's definitely something there for everyone. Whether you're there for the music, food, or just plain people watching - you're in a for a great time!
We arrive at the Summerfest grounds where the fest is held at 10:30am. We are supposed to head straight to the restricted parking lot (which is half way across the fest). We realize that there's no way we would be able to carry all of our gear across the fest to the Dance pavilion where we're supposed to be playing in an hour and a half, so Rad went to hunt down a golf cart or shuttle to help in loading our gear. While we're waiting for him to get back a guy pulls up in a golf cart and asks if we need any help getting to our stage. We of course take him up on this offer! We got to know our golf cart escort, Jason, real well on our 6 trips back and forth from the van to the stage. This was his first time at Pridefest also and he told me that he was super-impressed by how welcoming and genuinely nice all the people were. He's from Chicago and said that with this positive experience he'll definitely make the trip back next year!
So we're all loaded onto the stage and the soundcheck runs smoothly thanks to our sound guy Nick and Pridefest's sound guy Brian Miller. This being our first time playing the fest we wanted to make sure that we sounded the absolute best we could. I ended up heading back to the van with Jason's help to pick up the two extra speakers that we brought along just in case. The sound was incredible for playing such a large stage! Everything was crystal clear.
Due to our Sunday noon slot - the first of the day - there weren't too many people there, but once we started people began to filter through. We got a decent response especially for the early time slot. We ran straight through our 30 minute set with very little stopping. I remember thinking 'didn't we just finish our second song and now we're almost done?!'. We wrap up and our new buddy Jason was waiting to help us load everything back to the van. He was able to catch our set and said he really enjoyed our funky dance sound. So we take our 6 or 7 trips back and forth from the stage to the van watching the different bands as we pass by on our golf cart.
Nick and I made a plan to head back to watch Shunda K at 4:30pm on the same stage we just got done playing on. The New Loud just finished a remix for a Shunda K song called 'Here I am to save the world'. Not only was she super nice and wants to get together for some dual touring, but she tore it up on stage! It was great to finally get the opportunity to meet her as she's from Florida and we don't get there too often.
Nick and I walked around and checked out the different booths and stages before the rain came. Luckily the rain held off until we were ready to leave.
This was our first year playing Pridefest and I already can't wait until next year!
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