Gay Milwaukee

The Brew City: Hot Spots when Traveling.

Chances are, when you hear the word “Milwaukee,” you think of Alice Cooper’s historical knowledge of the city from Wayne’s World.  Well this city has much more to offer than just some fun movie references.  You usually don’t think of Milwaukee when traveling to the Midwest, but at just about an hour and a half outside of Chicago, Milwaukee is a great spot to visit filled with exciting and unique attractions. 

Besides the movie references, Milwaukee is probably best known for being the “brew city,” once being home to four of the world’s largest breweries.  While three of those breweries have left the city, Milwaukee is still famous for their breweries and brewery tours.  When in Milwaukee, any beer lover has to visit one of the several brewery tours that the local breweries offer.  Most popular brewery tours are at the Lakefront Brewery, Sprecher Brewery, and of course, the Miller Brewing Company.  All the tours offer a fun and interesting history of the beer and its brewing company.  And of course, at the end of the tours, free samples of some of their best beers are available.  Brewery tours offer a fascinating look into not only the brewery’s history, but the city’s as well.

Milwaukee also prides itself on being the “city of festivals,” holding some of the biggest and most diverse festivals in the nation.  The festivals celebrate the city’s diversity and roaring culture.  The city’s festivals take place through out the summer months, starting with Pride-Fest, a celebration for the gay community of Milwaukee in June.  The festival season continues throughout the summer celebrating the many cultures of the city including Polish, Italian, German, Hispanic, Native American, African American, and Asian.  The festival continues throughout the summer, ending in September.  These festivals are an exciting time to experience the culture and uniqueness of the city.  Milwaukee is also the home to the largest music festival in the world, Summerfest.  This festival takes place over the span of eleven days from late June, into July.  The music festival is famous for attracting top billing acts from all genres including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kenny Chesney, Ludacris, Weezer, and even Weird Al.  Summerfest has concerts for anyone interested in music, no matter what their tastes are.  Summerfest also has nightly firework shows, shopping booths, and comedy acts.

Most of the city's gay bars and restaurants are located near downtown in the "third ward" and "fifth ward" districts.  The former area has largely completed gentrification and has a chic feel.  The latter is more of a starving artists district. 

Milwaukee isn’t the first place you’d think of when you think about the arts and theatre, but the city has a unique and great arts scene.  Whatever, your artistic tastes are, this city has it from museums to theatre.  Milwaukee is home to great museums such as America’s Black Holocaust Museum, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and most prominently the Milwaukee Art Museum.  The art museum sits on Lake Michigan and is home to some of the nation’s best expressionist art, modern art, and classic paintings, not to mention the new Quadracci Pavilion, a piece of art in itself, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

If the theatre arts is more your scene, you should check out any number of great performances that the city holds.  The city has a unique theatre experience because their performances are mostly done in smaller, more intimate performance spaces.  The city also offers the superb Milwaukee Ballet, the world class Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Rep Theatres.  While not known for mainstream productions, Milwaukee is a great city to take in some great performances done by the local theatre groups.

So as you plan your vacation to the Midwest, consider checking out Milwaukee.  The city isn’t only good for its movie references.  There’s definitely more to this city than you might expect.

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