WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Tweet comments and/or photos with the hashtag of #MileOfMusic, and see them below.
Welshly Arms @welshlyarms
We are super excited to announce that we will be performing at this year's @MileOfMusicFest! Catch us in Appleton,… https://t.co/OU0CMval42
Apr 18
Betsy Ade & the Well-Known Strangers @wkstrangers
So pumped to be a part of this great event once again! The city of Appleton, along with all the @MileOfMusicFest st… https://t.co/daREbuNnNT
Apr 18
BLKBOK @blkbok
Just announced The first 50 acts for the @MileOfMusicFest and look who’s coming to town….. #blkbok #mileofmusic https://t.co/KjXeDo4WjP
Apr 18
Joy Clark @JoyClarkMusic
Let's go @MileOfMusicFest !🙌🏾 #mileofmusic #joyismusic https://t.co/vmF9BPM26Z
Apr 18
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
Mile 10. First 50. (And more to come!) 🎶🥳 Join us August 3-6, 2023 in Downtown Appleton. Listen on Spotify here:… https://t.co/cJVF2c3uo8
Apr 18
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
We can't keep it a secret much longer. 😜The Mile of Music Team is excited to share festival updates & our much-anti… https://t.co/RpY3yvYZ7L
Apr 6
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
Spring has sprung, and warm weather is on its way! 👏 We're gearing up for Mile 10 and doing a little spring cleanin… https://t.co/BiERwrNh0m
Mar 23
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
It's a gray day in Appleton today, but we're celebrating the fact that we'll be kicking off Mile 10 in just 150 day… https://t.co/8t72n72aPP
Mar 6
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
A glimpse into just a few of the 34 ice sculptures that are currently displayed throughout @dwtnappleton! Head outs… https://t.co/RBzM5vIjiS
Feb 17
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
It's been nearly ten years of music and smiles, We're just so excited to see you on The Mile! Happy Valentine's Da… https://t.co/oQW1DgjxVH
Feb 14
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
Six more weeks of winter... so you can find us thinking about this summer at Mile 10! 🎵☀️ #MileofMusic https://t.co/8B7Y0iSR39
Feb 2
Phillipmscales @PhillipMScales
Last night at @StoneArchBrews was an ENTIRE blast! Let's do it again tonight see you there: https://t.co/j4jo4a9dTMhttps://t.co/F45KimFygd
Feb 1
WLUK-TV FOX 11 @fox11news
To provide fundraising support and to keep #MileofMusic going each year, Appleton Community Music, Inc. was formed… https://t.co/C5tpkLWwpG
Jan 24
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
As the #MileOfMusic readies to commemorate its 10th festival in August 2023, Appleton Community Music, a recently f… https://t.co/ig6UjUMPzF
Jan 24
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
Learn more about Appleton Community Music, Inc.'s support for #MileOfMusic on Tuesday, January 24! If you'd like… https://t.co/e3ehFJfWUN
Jan 20
Phillipmscales @PhillipMScales
#appleton, I love you. Ya'll pretty much #soldout the first show so @StoneArchBrews decided to add another night!… https://t.co/LxVet7cQFp
Jan 16
Phillipmscales @PhillipMScales
Hey Appleton! We got a 🚨Low Ticket Alert🚨 for 1/31 at @StoneArchBrews! You definitely want to grab em before they'r… https://t.co/KyaWqDs6LZ
Jan 12
Phillipmscales @PhillipMScales
Stoked to chat with @TheAvenue91 about the @StoneArchBrews show on the 31st. What should we talk about #appleton? #mileofmusic
Jan 10
Keegan O'Brien @KeeganROBrien
Ending 2022 with a #MileOfMusic show from @the_astronomers! https://t.co/z0LJ8pL5H1
Dec 31
Mile of Music Festival @MileOfMusicFest
If you're looking for the perfect gift for the #MileOfMusic fan in your life, look no further than our gift bundles… https://t.co/PNS3lBpjbX
Nov 23
Betsy Ade & the Well-Known Strangers @wkstrangers
On deck! We are invading the @cityofappleton with the full band on December 3rd at the wonderful Gibson Community M… https://t.co/AF90wblUwb
Nov 19

Mile of Music Returns August 5-8, 2021!

Posted Jun 21, 2021
Blog

The Mile of Music team is thrilled to announce the return of Mile of Music (Mile 8) this August 5-8, 2021! We have lots of details to share, so please read the full press release below!

With the mantra of “let’s all get back in the groove,” the producers of Mile of Music have announced a robust Mile 8 festival for August 5 through 8 in Downtown Appleton, with a call for Mile attendees to continue their tradition of common courtesy, common respect and common-sense in taking in the music more safely at both outdoor and indoor venues during this unusual year.

Willems Marketing & Events, which created and has produced the free, multi-venue, all-original music festival since its inception in 2013, made the return of the popular festival – once called a “firehose of music” by a delighted fan – official today via an announcement released through news and social media.

Dave Willems, president of Willems Marketing & Events (WME) and festival curator, said there will be practical, common sense measures woven into this year’s event to balance the return to live music-loving normalcy with the realities of life amid the subsiding pandemic. “More than ever, we’re asking our fans, artists and host venues to continue working together to again put common courtesy on stage, front and center, for this year’s fest,” Willems said. “This is an opportunity for Appleton to continue to show the state and the country that we can do something very special while doing it responsibly and safely as we bounce back from such difficult days.”

Fox Communities Credit Union, which has been a key sponsor from the very first Mile, is back for a second time as presenting partner of the festival for Mile 8. Fox Communities moved into the presenting partner sponsorship slot in 2019 for Mile 7 and reprises that important support role for the much-anticipated return of The Mile. “Fox Communities Credit Union is excited to be the presenting sponsor of Mile of Music again this year,” said Cathy Harvath, vice president of marketing. “We have been a sponsor, at different levels, since the very beginning of The Mile and we are proud to be a part of such a great musical event that brings so much joy and positive economic impact to our communities. 2020 was a tough year for many local businesses as well as original artists and it’s nice to have an event like Mile of Music back. We look forward to seeing many familiar faces at Mile this year.”

Willems said Mile 8 will offer many of the features that original music fans from Wisconsin and around the country – a typical Mile fest draws fans from all 50 states – have come to expect from the walkable, good vibes-oriented event that begins at noon on Thursday and continues to approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday, typically on the first weekend in August each year. This year’s return of the festival after the 2020 pandemic hiatus also returns an impressive scope and scale to Downtown Appleton, with nearly 650 live music sets and music education sessions throughout the four-day main run at more than 40 host venues and festival spaces. The final list of venues will be announced soon, with some finalization of host spaces still taking place.

Willems said about 150 original music artists and Lawrence music education team members will be featured at Mile 8. “We’re excited that the number of artists is impressive again and the roster itself will be chock-full of talented national, regional, statewide and local performers,” he said. The First 50 artists committed to play Mile 8 will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday, as part of a follow-up release. The remainder of the artist and music education lineup will be released in the weeks that follow, with the detailed festival schedule of performances expected in mid-July.

One of the big adjustments for Mile 8 will be the shift of a significant amount of the music from indoor to outdoor. Whereas the average amount of outdoor music at the festival has been around 25 percent, the festival’s managing director, Mike Van Thull of WME, said this year’s event will be roughly split between outdoor and indoor venues. “Coming out of the pandemic, we feel this is the right modification for this year,” Van Thull said. “With more outside, we do become more susceptible to weather issues, but it’s intended as a one-year shift.” Another important tweak, Van Thull said, is that all four days of Mile 8 will always have live music sets available to see outside during the times when there is indoor music. Essentially, he said, the festival will start each day at the outside venues and both outdoor and indoor venues will end around the same time each night – at the 11 p.m. outdoor curfew time and between 11 and 11:30 p.m. for the indoor venues. “This way, attendees will always have the benefit of knowing they can attend music outdoors if they choose,” he said.

Three of The Mile’s Main Stages will be located at the largest of the outdoor spaces available in downtown: Jones Park, Washington Square and the parking lot at The Core, which will be hosted by Spats, and will allow for larger crowds to gather and allow for more personal space than the smaller parking lot adjacent to Spats. Mid-sized outdoor feature stages will again include Fox River House, Emmett’s, The Courtyard Stage at Red Lion Hotel Paper Valley, Riverside Bar & Grill, the D2 Patio, the Ormsby green space on the Lawrence campus, and McFleshman’s beer garden. Some traditional indoor venues will move outside or increase their footprint outside, including: Stone Arch, which will move from the Tap Room to their outdoor space; Rookies, which will move from their patio to the larger parking lot on the other side of their building; Mondo!, which will move to The Parklet between the 222 Building and Copper Rock; and a new outdoor stage behind Jim’s Place and Wooden Nickel as those two formerly indoor venues join forces and collaborate on an outside stage area. For this year only, Houdini Plaza will feature some of the festival’s top acoustic acts in a more relaxed festival setting. “Washington Square allows significantly more open room to distance for this year,” Van Thull said. Houdini Plaza will return to its role as a main stage in 2022, according to Van Thull.

A more subtle adjustment, but an important “safer songs” measure, will be to allow more time in between artist sets at Mile 8. Ian Thomson, who leads the considerable effort of booking the artists and scheduling the expansive festival, said the increase to 35 minutes in between each live set at all venues will allow artists to make less hectic and safer transitions from one performance to the next. The extra time also will allow a more paced merch selling process for the artists. “It won’t be quite the scramble this year and we won’t be asking artists to help each other transition on and off the stage like we have in the past,” Thomson said. “This will give the sound techs more time to focus on the incoming artist at each stage, which we think will prove to be safer and a better artist experience overall.”

Mile organizers, as part of their mitigation plan with the City of Appleton, have asked the indoor venues to modify their capacities slightly lower for Mile 8, just so indoor venues aren’t, as Willems put it, “quite so noses-to-noggins.” In addition, The Mile Team has asked the smallest of the host venues to sit this year’s festival out, with the expectation for these venues to return for Mile 9 in 2022. Additional protocols will be in place, too, such as using disposable microphone covers for the artists that will be discarded in between each act, positioning portable restrooms with more room in between, and placing more signage within the festival footprint to remind people to be mindful of personal space.

Though some of the logistics of staging such a large event under the current circumstances are challenging, Willems said the biggest challenge for Mile 8 will be financial. Since The Mile Team didn’t know for certain that holding a festival was going to be a likelihood until as little as two months ago, the scramble is on to find sponsors and other funders to help create as special of an event as possible. Several stages remain available to be sponsored and organizers also will be looking to gain continued support from individuals, couples and families who have helped fund the event through their Adopt-An-Artist underwriting and Music-Makers Subscriptions which, in a more typical year, allow for a number of perks and benefits in exchange for helpful individual sponsorship support.

Willems said Mile of Music will launch a 30-day public funding campaign on July 6 that will run through August 4 – Go The Extra Mile for The Mile – and will invite the public to send helpful sponsorship funding directly to support this year’s bounce-back festival. Within that campaign, supporters will be able to choose the funding level of their choice, which will include the option to be Adopt-an-Artist sponsors or Music-Makers subscribers – along with three new categories of support to be announced. “In this unpredictable, up-and-down year we’re in need of all the support we can get to sustain The Mile,” Willems said. “We’ve been able to make it happen for seven years through the existing sponsorship model, but now we’re going to need a little extra help. Some extra mile help, to be exact.”

Another way the public will be able to help make the music happen, Willems said, is while attending Mile 8, where text-to-support opportunities will be promoted for those who are enjoying the plethora of free music. “It’ll be completely optional, but we have heard from many people during the festival each year that they’d like to offer funding and this will be a key way for them to do just that while helping us to pay for the event this year,” he said.

Willems said more details about this year’s Music-Makers Subscriptions and Adopt-an-Artist opportunities will be released on June 30, along with the all-important volunteer portal. Mile of Music typically utilizes more than 400 volunteers throughout the four days of the festival. The portal will include a listing of volunteer opportunities and sign-up capability.

21 Responses to Mile of Music Returns August 5-8, 2021!

  • Gerald Howatd says:

    All in!

  • Pam Sealy says:

    We purchased a Music Maker sponsorship last year, does it carry over?

  • Ben Heinen says:

    Can’t wait for Mile 8. Feels a bit Christmas Eve with artists being announced tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who is working to make it happen!

  • Stephen Heng says:

    If we donated our Music Makers sponsorship fee last year, do we just choose whatever type of sponsorship feels right this year?

    Steve Heng

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hi Stephen!

      We will have Music-Makers Subscriptions available starting June 30, otherwise, if you’d like to discuss other opportunities with us, feel free to send us an email at [email protected]. Thanks for your support!

  • James W Olski says:

    Looking to be a VIP supporter this year. Tell me when and how.

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hi James!

      Our Music-Makers Subscriptions will go on sale next week, on June 30! Thanks for your support.

  • Ginger says:

    I’m so excited I need a Music Maker’s Badge to help support all the efforts also volunteering for this Mile L8TE will be Great Thank you so much Mile Team so Happy

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hi! We’ll have Subscriptions on sale soon (June 30), and volunteer signup will launch that day too. Thanks for your support over the years!

  • Shelley Nulton says:

    not finding a volunteer site
    would like to continue volunteering

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hi Shelley! Thanks for your interest in volunteering. The volunteer link will be up next week on June 30.

  • Bob Saigh says:

    Reading this in Phoenix, AZ (currently 107 degrees, headed for 110+), impressive preparations. Maybe I’ll find my way to The Mile scene in August. Nice going, Keep on, Good Luck.

  • patrick haak says:

    I have the app from last year ,do i need to reload it on my android phone? when i go the play store it only shows up in the apple play store. Is there anything i need to do for an android phone? Thanks in advance

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hey Patrick! Our app & website are both currently going through some changes with our integration platform. You should not need to re-download the app, but we will check with our app developers to make sure this hasn’t changed. Thanks!

  • Dale Eggert says:

    Will the app be updated soon?

    • Mile of Music Festival says:

      Hi Dale! We are working through some changes with our web/app integration platform, so we will make sure to post when things are ready!

  • Charles says:

    So proud to be part of this. So sincerely happy that the Willems company kept it together

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