By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Sep 05, 2023 at 6:56 PM

The Great Milwaukee Summer is HERE! Your guide to what you'll be doing, where you'll be drinking, who you'll be hearing and how you'll be getting a sweet tan this summer is on OnMilwaukee. The Great Milwaukee Summer guide is brought to you by Educators Credit Union and Harley-Davidson Museum

Now that Labor Day has passed and schools are back in session, some believe the summer is over – but not the folks over at Henry Maier Festival Park, who will host a temporary beer and cocktail garden on the lakefront to drink in the final sips of summer this month. 

Open Fridays and Saturdays during September beginning this weekend, the new Lakeside Beer & Cocktail Garden will be found through the midgate of Henry Maier Festival Park, available for all – young, old and four-legged. The new outdoor space will feature a menu of craft and macro brews – including Miller Lite and High Life, Lakefront Oktoberfest, Terrapin options and more – as well as Vizzy seltzers, Topo Chico, draft cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages. And to help relax with your drinks, the beer garden will offer picnic table seating on the lakefront along with some outdoor yard games. The Northwestern Mutual Community Park will also be open during the beer garden's hours. 

It wouldn't be a beer garden hosted on the Summerfest grounds without some live music, too, so the outdoor hangout will feature regular acoustic acts throughout September, taking the mic from 5-7:30 p.m. Here's the lineup scheduled during the beer garden's run:

  • Friday, Sept. 8 – Random Maxx Trio
  • Saturday, Sept. 9 – Rogue
  • Friday, Sept. 15 – Barb Stephan and Peter Mac
  • Saturday, Sept. 16 – Cody James
  • Friday, Sept. 22 – Ryan McIntire
  • Friday, Sept. 29 – The Stangs
  • Saturday, Sept. 30 – TBA

The Lakeside Beer & Cocktail Garden will be open every Friday and Saturday through the rest of September from 3-8 p.m. – save for Saturday, Sept. 23, when the space will be open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. in tandem with Fromm Petfest.

For more information about the beer garden, click here. And for more info about the rest of the beer gardens in and around the city, take a swig of our regularly updated beer garden guide

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.