American Family Insurance Amphitheater — Attraction in Milwaukee

I was in attendance for the Big Time Rush concert on August 9, 2025, and after that experience, I do not intend on returning to American Family Insurance Amphitheater. To preface this review, I understand that the venue has no control over the weather. However, they do have control over their response to bad weather, and the way in which they responded was reckless and irresponsible.

The doors to the fairgrounds were scheduled to open at 5:30 pm, with doors to the amphitheater at 6:00 pm. My sisters and I arrived around 6:30 pm to find a line, blocks long, to enter the fairgrounds. The only communication from the venue was an Instagram story stating that doors would open at 6:45 pm and the openers would start at 7:20 pm. The line did start to move around 6:45 pm, but at a glacial pace, so we did not enter the fairgrounds until around 7:40 pm.

At this point, it started to downpour, so my sisters took shelter under an awning, hoping the rain would lighten up. Once it was clear it wouldn’t, we made a run for it and entered the amphitheater around 8:20 pm. At about 8:40 pm, the venue made the first announcement that there was a “weather delay” for the headlining show.

Like many other attendees, my sisters and I decided to use this time to purchase merch and concessions. Around 9:15 pm, there was a second announcement that the show was still delayed due to weather and that the venue was consulting with a meteorologist.

Finally, at around 11 pm, the venue announced that the show had been postponed (and has since been canceled). The staff quickly shepherded the attendees out into the pouring rain. At this point, it had been raining so long and so hard that there were many areas of standing water. By the time we got to our car, we were drenched. I then had to make the two hour drive home in the pouring rain at night through semi-flooded streets. It was scary and avoidable.

Again, I understand there was nothing that the venue could do about the bad weather. However, there were other events occurring that night that also had to adjust for the weather and did so in safer ways. For example, the State Fair cancelled their headlining concert at 8:06 pm that evening. Evidently, it was clear at that point that the rain was going to continue well into the night, so it’s unclear why American Family Insurance Amphitheater chose to have the attendees wait for multiple hours for the rain and flooding to get worse before postponing the show.

In addition, City of Milwaukee Ordinance 108-23 requires that “outdoor public entertainment shall be discontinued … no later than 12:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights”. The average Big Time Rush setlist length is two hours and five minutes, according to setlist.fm. Thus, at the latest, the venue should have known by 10 pm that the show would not be able to go on. Even more unacceptable are the videos on social media showing the band leaving the venue at 10:20 pm. Why then, was the audience not informed that the show would be postponed until 11 pm? That decision forced people to leave during incredibly dangerous conditions.

All in all, the venue made some really poor decisions that night. Those poor decisions wasted the time and money of the attendees and forced them to leave the venue and drive home in unsafe conditions. This was supposed to be a fun night celebrating my sisters' birthdays, but it ended up being a big time...

Opening day at Summerfest, plenty of fun, food, and music. The highlight of the day and evening was seeing the headline act Thomas Rhett, Dustin Lynch, and Russell Dickerson at American Family Amphitheater.

The event was really great for both the fans and the artists. The crowd was ready for a fantastic show and the musicians provided exactly what they they came to see. Driven by the energy supplied by the audience: all the musicians seamed genuinely amazed at the fans excitement and the level of interaction they had with performers. More than once each musician commented how well and how loud they sounded singing along with ALL songs performed. One of the highlights was when Thomas Rhett left the main stage proceeded through the crowd to a temporary stage up by the "cheap seats" and performed a number of songs. This was a great gesture giving all fans a better view of their favorable star and a feeling of greater interaction with him. Also providing a fantastic photo OP for many of the younger fans who could not be down in the pit. Nice move, great P.R. and truly a moment we all will remember to a remarkable show.

At that being said I was a little disappointed by the sound system that was invested by the designers of the new Amphitheater. All we heard about was the improvements that was being done. Yes there was a new face put on, they did raise the roof, made the location more fan friendly but the one thing they failed on was the new sound system. I am not sure how it performed down in the main section but higher up by the bleachers there was alot of echo and unintended reverberating sounds. I am sure many people did not notice or care since they shamed to know all the songs and all the words, but some of us are not so lucky.

P.S. Summerfest REALLY $4.75 for a Pepsi or water. Beer and wine I understand, an adult that wants to buy a 1 beer for the price of a six pack, that is their choice. But forcing families to have to pay for these prices is a pit, no a great bit extreme. I can buy 2 6 packs for the price of one soft drink. You have a monopoly since you do not allow patrons to carry in and you FORCE all your vendors to sell at the price you set. I know a few of the food vendors and they think it is pure greed but if they do not comply they will lose there spot the next year. I think there maybe some illegality to this, 1) establishing a monopoly and 2) price fixing. Are you trying to drive away families? Isn't that how Summerfest started and help make it into what is today or was it always...

Wanted to go to a show with my grandmother who uses a wheelchair. Had early access to ticket sales and should have been able to buy handicap seats with 0 issue. Got on right away and there weren't any available. Emailed support and they first tried to tell me that they don't sell handicap tickets online. Pointed out that that is illegal. Then they tried to tell me they do sell them online, but not in pre-sales. Still illegal. Then they claimed they fixed it but they sold out immediately after 5 seconds. This wasn't a hugely popular show for pre-sales and 99% of all other tickets were still available. Seemed like bullshit but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. My gramma decided not to go but told me to go anyway. I'm also disabled and asked for an accessible entrance. They took me and several other people with physical disabilities plus their families to the back, then tried to tell us we weren't permitted to see the band for the VIP experienced we paid for if we couldn't use the normal entrance. We had to fight them over it and nearly missed VIP. And once I got into amphitheater area, there were giant trash cans in ALMOST EVERY SINGLE ACCESSIBLE SPOT. They weren't "sold out" they had like 3 accessible seats open in the theater, only in the shittiest area, and intentionally blocked the rest so they wouldn't have to have disabled people at the show. There was one old lady that was denied VIP entrance with me that bought two of them (and had to get a special add on for VIP directly from Live Nation because they didn't have any VIP for disabled people at all), one for her chair and one for her husband's rollator and they weren't able to enjoy the VIP experience because these trashcans blocked there way from the stage. They had to sit in the entryway off to the side where they couldn't see. This entire place needs to be banned from shows until they can follow federal laws surrounding accessibility. They may not have to renovate to make it more accessible because of the age of the theater but they absolutely don't get to intentionally make it less accessible just to keep people they don't like from attending. And yes, that's what that was about. Otherwise they wouldn't have tried to ban every disabled person from...