Part of the appeal of living in larger cities is being surrounded by large cultural events and consistent activity. As Wisconsin’s largest city — and the fifth-largest city in the Midwest — Milwaukee has that in spades. Also known as Festival City, Milwaukee almost always has something going on, especially during the summer. The Henry Maier Festival Grounds is where most of the city’s most popular events take place, but you’ll also find other crowd-drawing venues scattered around the city. Depending on which major event you’re after, here’s a sampling of the nearby apartments for rent in Milwaukee.
Summerfest Grounds
Henry W. Maier Festival Park along Lake Michigan is the main place to find events in Milwaukee, and it’s full nearly all summer long. The area — which was first an airstrip in the 1920s, and later became a nuclear missile and military installation during the Cold War — is now home to one of the biggest summer events in the Midwest: Summerfest. The annual festival brings thousands into Milwaukee for 10 days of sun, music, food, and vendors. The same grounds host Irish Fest, PrideFest, Indian Summer, Polish Fest, German Fest, Festa Italiana… you get the point.
Wisconsin State Fair Park
Tosa Apartment Homes
Out in West Allis, the Wisconsin State Fair Park holds more than just its single namesake event that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. Greek Fest, for example, is an annual event in the park, as is the Maker Faire, Harvest Fair, World Beef Expo, and a free summer concert series called Wednesday Night Live.
Miller Park
This venue hosts baseball and tailgating in equal parts, and whenever there’s a game, you can count on traffic being thick and inconvenient — unless, of course, you live nearby the stadium.
Cathedral Square
In additional to being a beautifully empty space in East Town, right amid the skyscrapers of downtown, Cathedral Square is also host to a flurry of summer activities. A free weekly concert series, Jazz in the Park, brings dozens of food and drink vendors around the square, complementing the bars and restaurants that already line the park. It also holds Firkin Fest (a beer fest celebrating cask-conditioned ales), Bastille Days (one of the country’s largest French fests), and the weekly Cathedral Square Market.
Some areas — like the lakefront and downtown — are also hotspots for constant activity, and often hold larger events as well, such as Milwaukee Comedy Festival and Gallery Night and Day in downtown, and the Fourth of July Fireworks, Milwaukee Air and Water Show, Kite Fest, and Brewfest along the lakefront. But that’s the perk of living in Milwaukee: You never have to go far to stay entertained.
Cover image by Sean Hackbarth via Flickr.
