Bastille Days!

Summer in Milwaukee is always pretty epic. The weather is agreeable enough to everyone in Wisconsin congregating outdoors, for any social gathering you can dream up. By the way, we’re pretty creative here, and we dream up a lot of random excuses, err… events. If you haven’t experienced it (yet), you obviously can’t confirm or deny. But every once in awhile, you might catch yourself yearning for a French experience. Look no further than Milwaukee, because it’s home to French Festival: Bastille Days. It happens to be North America’s largest French-themed celebration. Who’d have known!? Milwaukee knows how to celebrate any heritage all summer long.

With French culture being synonymous with cool; it draws quite a crowd over the 4-day festival. The first night kicks off with a Storm the Bastille run, sponsored by Associated Bank. We grew up going to Bastille Days and Storming the Bastille was always the night we attended. Either we ran the race, or we volunteered to give the runners water, etc. It was a big deal as a child, getting to be out late on a Summer night. The throngs of people excited for the excuse to run the streets of downtown Milwaukee were exhilarating to be around. Never has a 5k run/walk gone by so quickly. It gives you a chance to see Milwaukee from a different perspective than your car window. Come join us this year in Storming the Bastille. The run is at 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 11th, we’d love to see you there!

Once the run/walk is over, it’s all fun and games from there. Cathedral Square is transformed into stall after stall of food vendors and various goodies. There are options for everyone. One of the delights in attending festivals and marketplaces is discovering a cool item you never knew you needed. Plus, you know we’re drawn to local small businesses. Every time we’ve attended, we’ve been able to meet a new to us vendor. Can’t wait to see what goodies Bastille Day will unearth for us this year.

The smells alone will lure you to stalls to discover the French/Cajun cuisines. We’ve seen so many local high-quality restaurants with booths of better than a typical festival treat. Of course, they’d be remiss if they didn’t have crepes. My personal favorite, however, is the beignets. You can satisfy your sweet tooth with one of those! Then you can wash it down with one of their wine tastings. Bastille Days offers them Friday, July 12th at 8:30 p.m. for the perfect weekend kick-off. Otherwise, they have two options on Saturday, July 13th at 6 p.m. or 8 p.m. If wine isn’t your jam, maybe you’d be drawn more to the champagne tasting on Sunday, July 14th at 1 p.m.? If you pick up your ticket in advance online, it’s only $30, otherwise $40 at the event. That’s a steal for 8 tastings and a light appetizer pairing!

Perhaps you’re experiencing withdrawals now that Summerfest has ended. Fear not! Bastille Days has four stages with live music, to ease you back into your Summerfest-less existence. There’s a wide array of performers, to cover the diverse crowds. With that in mind, you can bring the whole family. If you want to come with your children, they have the annual Kids Day Celebration on Saturday, July 14th. There’s a French-themed breakfast, ballet lessons, and soccer drills to keep your kids enjoying their time at Bastille Days.

I could wax poetic about Bastille Days all day long. Instead, I’ll just tell you this. Go check it out, you won’t regret it! It’s a smaller festival, but it has so much flair and character. Plus, where else are you going to find a mini replica of the Eiffel Tower? The other thing we’re super excited about this year is the Love Locks Sculpture! It’s being unveiled on July 11th, and it’s interactive! You can purchase a lock at the Bastille Days merchandise booth, write a message or loved one’s initials on it, and lock it onto the sculpture, dropping the key into a locked box to signify your love will last forever. All proceeds from these love lock sales will be donated to Habitat for Humanity too! Lastly, come join us for the Associated Bank Storm the Bastille 5k Run/Walk. Enter to win a free registration on our Instagram/Facebook post. Otherwise, you can register using this link! Online registration closes June 25 but you can register in-person over the next few weeks and the day of the run too. https://events.easttown.com/products/storm-the-bastille-registration