Despite fog, rain & colder weather, Summerfest attendance is up for 2014

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Despite fog, rain and cooler-than-normal temperatures, 851,879 passed through the gates of Summerfest 2014. That's an increase of 1.4 percent over 2013.

Food and beverage sales at the event also increased by 6 percent over last year’s totals in the same categories.  Additionally, corporate sales rose by over 6.4% over last year’s totals, including new sponsorship partnerships.

In a news release, Don Smiley, President and CEO of Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. said, “We are thrilled that everyone enjoyed Summerfest 2014!  The music, food and beverage offerings, and promotions, were high quality, diverse and very popular with festival fans.”

Summerfest employed nearly 2,200 seasonal employees overall, and as a proud partner and key contributor to Mayor Tom Barrett’s youth employment program, “Earn and Learn,” Summerfest employed over 600 young workers between the ages of 16 and 22 years old.  Collectively, the labor pool worked approximately 140,000 hours during the event.  Additionally, 875 volunteer shifts, equating to 5,400 hours from 400 volunteers and drivers, contributed to help the festival run smoothly.

This year, the festival asked patrons to consider purchasing their tickets online at Summerfest.com in advance of the event to save time at the Admission Gates.  Summerfest.com’s Print-at-Home ticket system saw nearly a 20 percent increase in usage over the last year’s final totals.

Summerfest provided patrons with the opportunity to GET IN FOR FREE or at a discounted rate each and every day of the festival.  In total, 80,497 patrons entered the event for FREE, taking advantage of admission promotion offers.

Additionally, MCTS says it saw a 13 percent increase in overall ridership to Summerfest this year -- compared to 2013.

In all, MCTS gave 283,446 rides to/from Summerfest. Its efforts resulted in the most rides given to Summerfest since 2010 (308,618).

With the freeway construction and a decrease in park-ride lots, MCTS took steps to help festival-goers get to and from the event taking place at the Henry Maier Festival Grounds on Milwaukee’s lakefront.

MCTS reduced the downtown shuttle (along Wisconsin Avenue) fare from $3 round-trip to $1.  As a result, MCTS gave 39,892 shuttle rides to/from Summerfest– up 53 percent from 2013 (26,108).

Freeway Flyers at designated park-ride locations also provided more riders. To help reduce wait times for boarding buses, MCTS set up fare collection stations at park-ride lots during peak times. The extra steps helped MCTS as its Freeway Flyers gave 243,576 rides to Summerfest, an increase of nine percent from last year (223,844).

Summerfest 2015 will take place June 24 - 28 and June 30 – July 5, from noon until midnight and will be closed Monday, June 29. For more details, visit Summerfest.com.