With A La Carte at the Milwaukee County Zoo celebrating 40 years this month, locals have a pretty set idea of what the annual event is all about.
A La Carte’s longtime selling point is the opportunity to “feast with the beasts,” with more than 30 restaurants represented for this year’s event Aug. 20 to 23.
Then there’s the music, specifically the national headliners. This year that includes acclaimed funk group Tank and the Bangas, alternative pop duo lovelytheband, country artist Chris Lane, and Americana brother act jackrabbit. featuring actor Dermot Mulroney.
But A La Carte isn’t really recognized as a standout event for Milwaukee music, despite the fact that local artists always dominate the lineup.
That perception is about to change.
The typical cover band bookings have made significantly more space this year for local rappers, Latin acts, indie rockers, folk artists and more. It’s not a change event organizers have made a lot of noise about, but seeing acts like reggaeton duo Gego y Nony, rising R&B talent Hanna Simone, jazz-influenced rapper Emmitt James and singer-songwriter Allison Mahal in the mix is a delightful surprise.
Considering the breadth of live entertainment – 85 performances across six stages over four days – and with expected attendance of around 50,000 people, A La Carte at the Zoo, four decades into its run, has suddenly become one of Milwaukee’s premiere showcases for local artists making original music.
“It was already great how it was, but there is still room for growth, and to emphasize some more of the original music in the community,” event manager Justin Dunlap said about the strategy behind the booking change.
“Our role here is to be a community cultural asset, and make sure we are representing the entire community,” he said.
A new booking partner brings a new approach
Last fall the Milwaukee County Zoo issued a request for proposal to find a booking partner for A La Carte, a process it undergoes every few years, Dunlap explained.
Culture by Design – an event and brand marketing firm behind the annual Summer of Soul free concert series at Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Peck Pavilion – won the bid.
“They presented to us a bit of a refresh. That is really what excited us,” said Geraud Blanks, managing partner and creative director at Culture By Design. “Our whole mission is to bring folks together. … We want people from different neighborhoods and different communities, people who love blues, jazz, hip-hop, soul, rock and country. We want them all to feel welcome.”
That’s also what Dunlap envisioned for A La Carte.
“We generally had a lot of great musicians doing a lot of familiar songs,” Dunlap said. “We still have plenty of that. … But working with Culture By Design, we identified some areas that were lacking.”
Doing informal A La Carte survey work with Maureen Post, managing partner and director of strategic partnerships at Culture By Design, Blanks said people “rarely talked glowingly about the entertainment.”
“It was rock and country heavy,” Blanks said of past lineups. “There was not much R&B, no hip-hop, not much Latin or world music. … We wanted to create something for everybody.”
‘We want to put (A La Carte) on the map … for music lovers’
Blanks credits two people on his team for completing that goal: Jason Burczyk, the entertainment director and talent buyer for Milwaukee venue The Cooperage; and Alex Julien, owner of live entertainment agency Brew City Soul Music Group.
Among their best Milwaukee act bookings is a relatively rare performance by art rock ensemble Group of the Altos, led by Daniel Spack, a collaborator with Justin Vernon and other Milwaukee musicians in the band Volcano Choir. Powerhouse vocalist Mark Waldoch, a local music scene veteran who’s also operated in Vernon’s orbit (including a past performance at Vernon’s Eaux Claires festival), will play A La Carte with his band The Hallelujah Ward.
Accomplished Milwaukee rappers Wave Chapelle and NilexNile, who started performing shows this summer ahead of a joint project release, will play A La Carte together. And local Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz group De La Buena will have headlining honors Aug. 23.
With new types of local acts at A La Carte, Dunlap hopes the event will “reach a broader audience with other musical interests than what we’ve had traditionally.”
“That family aspect is at the forefront of what we do, but a whole lot of people don’t fall into that group that would still enjoy the event,” Dunlap said. “We want to make sure that there’s something for those people, as well.”
Based on this year’s bookings, the A La Carte “refresh” is off to a good start, and is all the more impressive considering Culture By Design didn’t start until this past February.
“This is our bridge year,” Blanks said. “Hopefully right after this one ends, we’ll start on the next one.”
“We want to put (A La Carte) on the map … for music lovers,” Blanks said, adding that he wants the event to be a coveted play for local artists the way Summerfest is now. “Everybody on this team is trying to make the best damn music festival of the summer.”
Top local acts at A La Carte at the Zoo
Aug. 20
Aug. 21
Aug. 22
Aug. 23
IF YOU GO
What: A La Carte at the Zoo
When: 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 20 to 22, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 23
Where: Milwaukee County Zoo, 10001 W. Blue Mound Road
How much?: $18 to $22.75 per day at the gate and milwaukeezoo.org
Contact Piet Levy at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him at facebook.com/PietLevy.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How the zoo quietly made A La Carte a top event for local music
Reporting by Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
