Milwaukee Avenue Arts Fest Now One of Bests Fests in Town

By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 29, 2011 7:20PM

With Wicker Park Fest last weekend and Lollapalooza next weekend, our social calendar has been exhausting. Our hopes for Wicker Park Fest were promptly dashed with the lack of interesting music, vendors and space to move around. But we're really looking forward to the festival sandwiched between Wicker Park Fest and Lolla, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, which spans Milwaukee Ave. between Kimball and California.

Now in its third year MAAF boasts a slew of local and not-so-local artists and their wares, and a full slate of awesome musical acts playing their hearts out on three separate stages: The main stage at Milwaukee and Kezdie, the Cole's Stage at Milwaukee and Belden and at the Logan Arts Center located at 2810 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tonight you can find us checking out our friends the Outer Minds, Rabble Rabble and JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound on the Main and Cole's stages. Tomorrow we recommend you check out The Eternals and This Is Cinema and Sunday you can catch us busting a move to The Hood Internet and head bobbing to Netherfriends. One thing we really love about this festival as compared to the slew of others that have taken over the Chicago streets is that almost all of these bands are local to Chicago. After all, these fest are supposed to be about Chicagoians and for Chicagoians.

Of course we can't forget what the fest is supposed to be about: art. Over 35 art galleries and exhibitions will be featured in the fest as well as performance art from the Chicago Ballet, Dance Attack and Live Art and Live Music by John Garza. One of the great things about this fest is that if you're feeling ADD, then you have a myriad of stuff to check out.

The Milwaukee Arts Festival, July 29-31, Milwaukee Ave between Kimball and California, $5 Suggested Donation, All Ages