Every morning throughout Summerfest 2025, we’ll deliver a guide that covers the day’s entertainment and how you can get in the gate free of charge. This is where you’ll find info about the AmFam Amp headliners, eclectic picks from our knowledgeable staff and the music lineup for the day (see the full 2025 Summerfest lineup here).
Today at the AmFam Amp
James Taylor, Jason Mraz w/Tiny Habits, 7:30 p.m.
Taylor is a longtime visitor to Summerfest and appeared on what was then known as the Main Stage back in 1975. He’s made several stops at the festival since then, including a 2023 show at the Amp that included an opening set from Sheryl Crow.
It’s been a couple years since Taylor’s last studio album, 2020’s American Standard, but it’s not like the guy is hurting for material. That release was Taylor’s 20th full-length LP, a discography that launched with 1968’s self-titled debut. Then there’s his song catalog, which includes the chart-topping “You’ve Got a Friend” and too many others to fit into one set — “Fire and Rain,” “Caroline in My Mind,” “How Sweet It Is” and on and on.
It adds up to an incredible career that earned him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2000, six Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. He won’t have that hardware on stage, but a guitar is all this guy has ever needed to put on a memorable show.
Radio Milwaukee staff pick #1
Japanese Breakfast @ BMO Pavilion, 9:30 p.m.
If an album title like For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) sounds like anti-festival material to you, you’re not wrong (by looks, alone). However, when said-album written for saddies and baddies gets livened up and expressed stage-side, especially by Michelle Zauner, expect a visceral, vibrant and lush affair to captivate the senses and the heart — and not just the sad parts of those). More briefly: Prepare to be swept away.
When Japanese Breakfast visited Summerfest in 2023, she was hot off the heels of her Jubilee album and not too far behind from her beloved debut book, Crying In H Mart. Judging from that performance (as seen firsthand), Zauner has accrued a genuinely adoring fan base who freely ride the emotional rollercoaster with her.
From what reviewers have shared about this new tour, she is further captivating her fans with soft lighting and sea-themed elements (i.e., performing from a giant clam shell for the most tender moments) while still mixing in her trademark sense of humor, sharing films and skits on a screen with English and Japanese subtitles.
— Erin Wolf
Radio Milwaukee staff pick #2
Collections of Colonies of Bees @ BMO Pavilion, 4 p.m.
Milwaukee’s Collections of Colonies of Bees (or CoCoBees, if you’re into giving your bands cereal-esque nicknames) have spent the past six years deep in the trenches with their latest batch of songs for newest full-length Celebrities. It makes sense when you see the band live that such time and care was taken: The instrumental layers are stacked, intricate and ever-moving. To conceive of putting those layers into a recorded version seems like quite the process, to say the least.
In a live setting, the group is not fussy in the least. Watching a Bees show is joyous, humorous and ever-moving. The new songs from Celebrities are a singalong-worthy, guitar-strewn joyride that leans heavy into themes of letting go — and dancing it off. If you want a chance to lose yourself and kick up your heels at a rock show, this is a great chance to do just that.
— Erin Wolf
Radio Milwaukee staff pick #3
Ratboys @ BMO Pavilion, 7:30 p.m.
Clearly, you should just spend your whole day at the BMO Pavilion, because that stage just went 3-for-3 on our picks for the festival’s first Saturday.
Chicago four-piece Ratboys completes the triumvirate with their highly recommended 7:30 p.m. slot that brings them back to Milwaukee after two visits in 2023 (including a memorable Studio Milwaukee Session). At the time, they were touring behind most-recent album The Window, which is so damn good that nobody should blink twice about them taking it out on the road two years later.
The band has taken increasingly confident steps forward on each of their five studio LPs, both in their musicianship and how Julia Steiner deploys her deceptively sweet vocals. She’s proven capable of delivering lyrics both playful and devastating, which — coupled with how good they sound as a group — makes all of their live shows time well spent.
— Brett Krzykowski
How to get in free today
Briggs & Stratton Mary Lou’s Closet Supply Drive
Help support United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County’s Mary Lou’s Closet, a program providing needed hygiene supplies for youth in area public schools. The first 1,500 patrons who arrive between noon and 3 p.m. to donate new socks (greatest need), deodorant and/or oral hygiene items (toothbrush and toothpaste) with a total minimum value of $10 per person will receive one free admission ticket, valid for the day and time of the promotion only. All donations benefit the Milwaukee Community Schools Partnership.
Summerfest schedule for Saturday, June 21
American Family Insurance Amphitheater
- 7:30 p.m. — James Taylor, Jason Mraz w/Tiny Habits
BMO Pavilion
- 9:30 p.m. — Japanese Breakfast
- 7:30 p.m. — Ratboys
- 5:45 p.m. — Caley Conway
- 4 p.m. — Collections of Colonies of Bees
- 2 p.m. — Brie Stoner
AmFam House
- 4 p.m. — Good Neighbours
- 2 p.m. — Eric Bellinger
Miller Lite Oasis
- 10:15 p.m. — Yung Gravy
- 8:30 p.m. — Kashus Culpepper
- 6:30 p.m. — Jack Wharff & The Tobacco Flats
- 4:30 p.m. — Jason Scott & The High Heat
- 2:45 p.m. — The Back Alley
- 1 p.m. — Waiting for Eddie
UScellular Connection Stage
- 10 p.m. — Billy Currington
- 8:15 p.m. — Shaylen
- 6:30 p.m. — Cooper Ramsey
- 4:15 p.m. — Luke Borchelt
- 2:30 p.m. — KB & The Dungarees
- 12:45 p.m. — In the Know
Generac Power Stage
- 9:30 p.m. — Artemas
- 7:45 p.m. — Good Neighbours
- 6 p.m. — Iann Dior
- 4 p.m. — Immortal Girlfriend
- 2 p.m. — Pink Halo
- Noon — Ellee Grim
Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard
- 10 p.m. — Matt Maltese
- 8 p.m. — The Army, The Navy
- 6 p.m. — Claire Martine
- 4 p.m. — Odie Leigh
- 2 p.m. — Haley Johnsen
- Noon — Aubrey Marie
Uline Warehouse
- 9:30 p.m. — Lindsey Stirling
- 7:30 p.m. — The Strike
- 5:30 p.m. — Ben Rector
- 3:30 p.m. — Raine Stern
- 1:45 p.m. — Justin Nozuka
- Noon — Johnny Stimson
Aurora Pavilion
- 9 p.m. — DJ Paul H
- 7 p.m. — Eric Bellinger
- 5:45 p.m. — Groovy
- 4:30 p.m. — Mike Shane, DJ Bizzon
- 3:15 p.m. — Laced
- Noon — MKE Live Groove