Ahh, Summerfest, the annual music festival on the Milwaukee lakefront.  Anticipation of Summerfest keeps me going in the dark and often bitter Midwestern winters.

It’s all about the music, –nine performance venues! Music and beer.  Ok, non-alcoholic libation is for sale too. I thought of the ancient god of wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre, and ecstasy in Greek mythology.  Dionysus is the god of epiphany, the arriving outsider-god who comes.  Is not every musician worth his or her salt an outlier?  Dionysus is represented by the city religions as protector of those who do not belong to conventional society.  Some things have not changed—Orlando.

Here are some shots of men and women channeling the spirit of Dionysus this past Sunday July 3^rd.

 

According to ancient myth Dionysus’ wine, music, and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful.

 

 

 

One of our great pleasures was a performance by the Indigo Girls.  I heard for the first time their magnificent ballad, Rise of the Black Messiah.   If you dare to listen, this could change your life……………