Summerfest's wave-roofed pavilion turned a temporary stage into lakefront architecture. The BMO Pavilion at Henry Maier Festival Park on Milwaukee's Lake Michigan shoreline opened for Summerfest's 45th anniversary in June 2012, the centrepiece of a 35-million-dollar redevelopment of the festival grounds. Designed by Eppstein Uhen Architects with a swooping wave-inspired roof covering more than an acre - roughly 50,000 square feet - the venue replaced the old temporary Classic Rock Stage at the south end of the grounds with 5,000 permanent seats and backed bleachers under cover, plus standing room for 5,000 more adjacent to the roofline: 10,000 capacity with the lake over the back fence. Steve Miller Band opened the room on 27 June 2012, with Scorpions, Chicago, David Gray and the Avett Brothers filling out the first festival run, and the pavilion has anchored a headline slice of Summerfest's twelve-stage, 600-plus-artist sprawl every summer since. A contoured seating bowl, large video screens and full-scale production infrastructure give it amphitheater-grade capability inside festival grounds, and the amenities lean Milwaukee: an elevated lakeside sit-down restaurant, a 200-person club bar with a commanding view of the stage, and beer lines that respect the city's reputation. Owned by Milwaukee World Festival Inc., the nonprofit that has run the lakefront park since 1965, the pavilion works beyond the Big Gig - concerts, ethnic festivals and special events keep it busy through the season, with names from Elvis Costello to Counting Crows extending the calendar past the festival fences. Second in size only to the amphitheater on the grounds, it is the roof that made Summerfest weatherproof. The naming partnership with BMO has carried the venue through both its Harris-branded first decade and the streamlined BMO Pavilion identity, and the room's position inside a working festival park gives it logistics most amphitheaters envy: permanent power, staging and concessions that eleven other stages share, and a lakefront pedestrian approach through the festival gates. When the wind comes off Lake Michigan on a July night, the wave roof earns its shape.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 200 N Harbor Drive, Milwaukee, WI, United States, 53202

Website: https://www.bmopavilion.com

Capacity: 10000

Opening Date: 27/06/2012

Serves Food

Outdoor Area

Accessible