The summer festival season is almost upon us – and it will start as soon as this weekend with the fourth annual Arte Para Todos local music fest, which returns to Milwaukee stages from Thursday, April 26 through Sunday, April 29.
In just a handful of years, the festival (the name of which translates to "Art For Everyone") has ballooned into one of the city's largest local music gatherings, with four days dedicated to 70 bands spread across 25 venues in five different neighborhoods throughout the city.
But while all those numbers are very impressive, Arte Para Todos' most important numbers are the ones that are tallied after the festival is over. As a non-profit organization, APT has donated 100 percent of its proceeds to supporting art programs in Milwaukee schools, equalling more than $60,000 over just its first three years. And hopefully that number will grow even larger after this spring's edition – it sure better considering the ridiculous roster of talent it's wrangled together for year four.
Here's where to buy tickets – and here's who you'll be watching and listening to this weekend:
Thursday, April 26: Walker's Point
88Nine Radio Milwaukee
- 5:30 p.m.: Slimabean (WMSE)
Var Gallery
- 6:30 p.m.: King Myles
- 7:30 p.m.: Two Tones
- 8:30 p.m.: adoptahighway
- 9:30 p.m.: Hello Death
Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co.
- 8 p.m.: Negative/Positive
- 9 p.m.: Kane
- 10 p.m.: Siren
- 11 p.m.: Zed Kenzo
- Featuring live art from Bigshot Robot
Boone & Crockett Warehouse
- 8:30 p.m.: Match Stick
- 9:30 p.m.: YL64
- 10:30 p.m.: Strangelander
- 11:30 p.m.: De La Buena
Gibraltar
- 8:30 p.m.: The bbys
- 9:30 p.m.: paLABra!
- 10:30 p.m.: Cairns
- 11:30 p.m.: Dramatic Lovers
The Local
- 9 p.m.: Sex Scenes
- 10 p.m.: Crappy Dracula 2
- 11 p.m.: Ravi/Lola
- Midnight-2 a.m.: Close Up DJs
Friday, April 27: Bay View
Enlightened Brewing Company
- 5-7 p.m.: Pick up or buy your wristband here, with the first 50 getting a free Enlightened brew
Urban
- 6 p.m.: Bryan Cherry
- 7 p.m.: Joe Crockett
- 8 p.m.: Vinz Clortho
- 9 p.m.: Hello Face
Frank's Power Plant
- 8 p.m.: J. Lamo
- 9 p.m.: Future Plans
- 10 p.m.: Bo & Airo
- 11 p.m.: Space Raft
- Live art by dwellephant
Tonic Tavern
- 8:30 p.m.: Tombo
- 9:30 p.m.: Von Alexander
- 10:30 p.m.: DAD
- 11:30 p.m.: Mortgage Freeman
Puddler's Hall
- 9 p.m.: Soda Road
- 10 p.m.: Yazan (New York City)
- 11 p.m.: River Rats
- Midnight: Sundial Mottos
Club Garibaldi
- 9:30 p.m.: Sugar Ransom
- 10:30 p.m.: Marielle Allschwang
- 11:30 p.m.: Taiyamo Denku
- 12:30 a.m.: Klassik
Cactus Club
- 10 p.m.: Lifetime Achievement Award
- 11 p.m.: Immortal Girlfriend
- Midnight: Atheists and Airplanes
- 1 a.m.: For the Culture
Saturday, April 28: Riverwest and Harambee
Lux
- 1:30 p.m.: Holly Haebig
- 2:15 p.m.: Kyle Kenowski
- 3 p.m.: Amanda Huff
- 3:45 p.m.: Yum Yum Cult
4th Quarter
- 2:30 p.m.: Simon Mustafa
- 3:30 p.m.: Sin Bad
- 4:30 p.m.: Slow Walker
Black Husky Brewing
- 4-7 p.m.: Pick up or buy your wristband here, with the first 50 getting a free Black Husky beer (also featuring "Broken Up Band Bazaar" presented by Milwaukee Record)
Jazz Gallery
- 6 p.m.: SHAAM
- 7 p.m.: Caley Conway
- 8 p.m.: Mark Waldoch
Riverwest Public House
- 7:30 p.m.: $hunMillion$
- 8:30 p.m.: Apollo Vermouth
- 9:30 p.m.: Kenny Hoopla
- 10:30 p.m.: Jaill
- 11:30 p.m.: Queen Tut
- Live art from William Hurst
Linneman's Riverwest Inn
- 8 p.m.: Battlerat (Minneapolis)
- 9 p.m.: Sat Nite Duets
- 10 p.m.: Paper Holland
- 11 p.m.: Wavy V
Circle A
- 8 p.m.: Vanity Plates
- 9 p.m.: King Eye & The Squirts
Quarters
- 8:30 p.m.: Camb
- 9:30 p.m.: The Drunkardly Bros
- 10:30 p.m.: Six Wives of Richard
- 11:30 p.m.: Social Caterpillar
High Dive
- All night: Club Ritual (DJs Asher Gray & Richard Galling) with visuals by Shakylegs
Timbuktu
- 9:30 p.m.: Behind the Weekend
- 10:30 p.m.: Iron Pizza
- 11:30 p.m.: Gauss
- 12:30 a.m.: Fox Face
Mad Planet
- 10 p.m.: Ammorelle
- 11 p.m.: Shle Berry
- Midnight: Liam O'Brien's Faithless Followers
- 1 a.m.: Abby Jeanne
- Live art by John Kowalczyk and Malvy Westbrook
Company Brewing
- 10:30 p.m.: John Doe
- 11:30 p.m.: WC Tank
- 12:30 a.m.: Voodoo Honey Horns
- 1:30 a.m.: Rusty Pelicans
- APT 2018 Poster Series Showcase
Sunday, April 29: East Side
Urban Ecology Center
- 2-4 p.m.: Free music open jam session, a family-friendly event for all encouraging musicians of all abilities to play together. Some instruments and percussion tools will be available, but participants can bring whatever they want to play.
Jazz Estate
- 4 p.m.: Long Mama
- 5 p.m.: Derek Pritzl
- 6 p.m.: Pay the Devil
- 7 p.m.: Devil Met Contention
Colectivo Back Room
- 8 p.m.: Phat Nerdz
- 9 p.m.: NAN
Good City Brewing
- 8:30 p.m.: Colors of the Alphabet
- 9:30 p.m.: B-Free
- 10:30 p.m.: No Seatbelts
- 11:30 p.m.: D'Amato
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.