Summerfest Cooler by the Lake: 40 Years of Music and Memories

Over the past 40 years, Summerfest's 11-day festival has grown to become the centerpiece of summer in Milwaukee -a place to party, play, shop, eat, drink, dance, people-watch and soak up the sun. But what has always defined Summerfest is the music. Some of the biggest acts in popular music have played on those stages, for a fraction of the cost to see them elsewhere. No other major festival cuts a wider swath through the American songbook. Summerfest's stages have been a gathering place for legends: Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, Bob Dylan, Van Cliburn, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles - the list goes on and on. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been witness to every Summerfest. Its reporters and photographers have documented the attendees at play, the music legends at work, and every fun, memorable moment over the 40 years of Milwaukee's well-known festival. Summerfest presents 128 pages of hundreds of historic, amusing, heartwarming, and just plain silly photos from 40 years of the best time Milwaukeean¹s have had at the lakefront.