Bay View Bash

It was a beautiful day for an outside event! The community was out in force, everyone was in a great mood, there were dogs everywhere. I would have liked to see a much more diverse representation of Bay View’s businesses though. The majority of tents were for gyms and pets. I don’t want to be pushed into exercising (yuck) and as much as I love my dog, I don’t need 11 custom tags for him. Sadly, I had eaten before heading over here so I couldn’t sample the foods of Bay View, but everything looked great! I would consider coming back next year if it wasn’t all exercise and dog accessories.
Shout out to the awesome Unilocal table!

I moved to the suburbs long ago, but I still enjoyed this year’s Bay View Bash. It’s a super neighborhood-​y street fest with a very diverse mix of people, shopping, food and entertainment.
What you’ll see:
*Everyone from babies to 90-​year olds having fun. My great-​aunts come down for a beer after Saturday mass and they’re in their late 80’s (and total badasses).
*A strongman competition. I loved that the crowd was really cheering everyone on.
*Fun food options, mostly from BV businesses like Hue, LuLu and Vanguard.
*Tons of dogs — there’s a pet parade, plus several rescues have tents.
*Hipsters. Everywhere.
*Yellow jackets trying to get into your $ 4 microbrew
*A Republican tent pushing «I Stand with Scott Walker» stickers. Not a lot of takers. Know your audience, right?
*The Unilocal table with «wheel of fortune» for prizes. Unilocal Mints FTW.
*Lots of local shopping choices — think soap, jewelry and Wisco-​themed TShirts
*Everyone I dated in high school still trying to pretend they’re still cool and relevant.
What you won’t see:
*To-​go cocktails from local bars. I guess the Bash won’t allow it. LAME.
*Soccer moms
*People from Brookfield
*Enough bathrooms
The Bash is a great way to end summer and experience one of Milwaukee’s great neighborhoods!

Another fun, family friendly festival to round out the summer season. While some of the vendors give the feel of a yard sale, others are top notch. What I particularly love about this festival is that you have 3 local breweries represented (Lakefront, Sprecher, and Milwaukee Brewing). Locust Street has Lakefront and Summer Soulstice has Miller and Brady Street has Miller and Budweiser. Only Bayview Bash has 3 local.

I try and make it to The Bash every summer — I like that it’s closer to the end of festival season, filling in what would otherwise be a pretty dud-​a-​licious weekend.
Milwaukee Brewing Company, Lakefront and Sprecher are all serving here, and at $ 4 a cup it isn’t a bad deal. Unfortunately for me this year there was little to no carbonation in my Lakefront beers — but I spose that’s a risk of a mobile beer truck?
I felt that the entertainment was pretty odd this year — ranging from a LARPing group that attempted belly dancing to a screamo group that overtook all the other music… not to mention the «Strong Man Competition» that brought a truck into the middle of the festival without any volunteers to participate?
The food vendors are always solid, I had spicy rangoons from Hue, and a Peanut and Chicken Stew from Afro Fusion Cuisine. There was pizza, fresh baked bread, brats/​weens, kettle corn and much more.
Vendor booths ranged from handmade soaps and candles, to Canine Cupids showing off some adorable adoptables. A lot of the booths were occupied by business owners on the street in front of their shops, even the church on the block had an information booth!
It’s a great little fest to get yourself acquainted with the neighborhood — fun to stop by for a while, but seemed to be grasping at strings a little bit this year.

Yup, that’s right folks– the Bay View Bash is one of my favorite nights of the year. It’s after all the major festivals and I kind of look at it as the last hurrah of summer. Bay View is one of my favorite little pockets of Milwaukee and I grew up there so really the Bay View Bash is one giant reunion of all the people I’ve through out the years.
Music– the stage by Rush Mor always has super cool bands playing. The other stage is sub par but still has some decent stuff. The Dead Man’s Carnival always preforms which I totally love– nothing beats watching a fire breather with a guy dressed like the devil walking around drinking a beer.
Food– super good. It’s mostly Bay View places that have smaller portions of their menu. Lots of BBQ which I’m not really sure why but whatever, Café Lulu’s is there and that’s all that matters. Beer is cheap and it’s good beer too so that’s a bonus!
Overall– this one night always ends up being a great night for me. It would be nice to have more bathroom options but most businesses are willing to offer up theirs for the night. Super cool people, great music, good food– how can you go wrong?

I think this is my favorite street festival. There’s something for everyone, and all are welcome at Bay View Bash. Great food (husband had ribs; I had mini veggie burger sliders from Hamburger Mary’s), plenty of local, seasonal beer, animals and children galore, all the kids of music, plenty of entertainment both by way of acts invited to perform on stages and people meandering through the street in various costumes and stages of sobriety. All good fun. Highly recommended.

My first Bay View Bash was Saturday and it was freaking AWESOME!
I took my dog Buster and we headed down to KK for the dog walk. It. Was. The. Best.
Picture this! Pooches everywhere! Some in awesome costumes, some big, some small, but all pure awesome! I took my very excited pup and we joined others walking down KK and back. I don’t know who had more fun, me or the dog! He got to socialize and get fawned over, and I got to meet some great people from my neighborhood and I got to pet a ton of puppies!!!
There is something for everyone! Want a drink? There was local beer as well as a Café Lulu stand where wine was being sold. Vegetarian or Vegan? I saw black bean burgers right next to BBQ ribs! Want a «I love Milwaukee» shirt? Stands galore! I ended up with a shirt from Wiskullsin that had a ribcage design with a GB where the heart would be. There were 3 music stages, as well as an area for children, it was family friendly for sure!
Not only was there food and shopping, but charities had booths as well as politicians, and the best thing is everyone was super nice and friendly! No harsh words exchanged, everyone was just happy to be there on such a beautiful day!
Am I going next year? Heck yes! Am I going to try and force my 65 pound dog into a costume? You betcha!