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New concert documentary shows scenes from Mile of Music festival in Wisconsin

Free summer festival in Appleton starts July 31, includes hundreds of musicians

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Three musicians perform on stage at Mile of Music Festival; one plays upright bass while two singers hold microphones and sing passionately.
Buffalo Rose is a modern folk and Americana band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that performed at the 2024 Mile of Music festival in Appleton. Photo courtesy of PBS Wisconsin

Over the course of four days each summer, a 1-mile strip in Appleton fills with some 200 musicians who play more than 650 sets of original music. 

The Mile of Music festival has been going since 2013. The free summer event starts July 31. Event organizers say these are musicians you don’t know, but you should.

And there’s a documentary that just came out, showing viewers what they can expect during this year’s festival, which kicks off in about a month. 

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PBS Wisconsin on Monday released a concert documentary, also called “Mile of Music,” that offers a front-row seat to the community music festival by capturing 30 performances over three days last year with the help of a mobile recording studio, said Colin Crowley, lead producer on the documentary. 

“In researching for this, we had to listen to a lot of recorded music, and it just does not prepare you for how good live performance is,” Crowley said on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “And I always say: I don’t care what your tastes are or what you think when you hear a recorded song, it’s very hard to dislike live music.”

The documentary shows the range of music performed at the festival, including Valley Fox, a Midwestern folk band, and Diet Lite, a Milwaukee band that describes itself as “gritty, feel-good rock ‘n’ roll.”

In addition to the concert documentary, people can find another nine hours of performances online.

Crowley shared more with “Wisconsin Today” about the festival and the documentary. 

Three musicians perform energetically on stage; the guitarist is mid-jump, while the bassist and drummer play under stage lights.
The band Diet Lite out of Milwaukee performed at the Mile of Music festival in Appleton in 2024. The band describes itself as “gritty, feel-good rock ‘n’ roll.” Photo courtesy of PBS Wisconsin

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Rob Ferrett: You set out to make what you’re calling a “concert documentary,” not a documentary about concerts. What do you mean by that? 

Colin Crowley: The term “documentary” can be loaded. These days, we’re used to seeing true crime documentaries and things that get very nitty gritty into an issue. We wanted to tell the story of the festival, but we thought it was best to tell the story by letting the music tell the story. 

So what viewers are going to see is really a series of performances typical to what they would find if they attended Mile of Music with just enough context to let them know what they’re seeing.

A group of people walk past a large mural reading MILE OF MUSIC on the side of a gray building; a black car is parked on the street in front.
For the past 12 years, the Mile of Music festival has dominated downtown Appleton. When driving through the city, you can see celebrations of the festival, including this mural. Photo courtesy of PBS Wisconsin

RF: Can you just set the stage for us? What is this festival like? 

CC: It’s something you really have to be there to experience. Imagine College Avenue in downtown Appleton. It’s the main drag, and there are a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops and stores.

What the Mile Of Music festival does is different than other festivals where you’d maybe have one main stage out in a field. What they do is they turn the entire downtown and all of College Avenue into a series of over 35 venues. So you can show up in Appleton during the festival and simply walk up and down College Avenue. You can go into a coffee shop and see a performer. You can go across the street into a bar and see a loud rock band. You can go a little further down to Houdini Plaza and there’s a big stage, and there will be a crowd outside there. And it’s all happening simultaneously.

Three musicians perform on stage with a mandolin, upright bass, and acoustic guitar in a wooden-paneled room with a grand piano and a water bottle on the floor.
Valley Fox is a folksy trio that performed at the Mile of Music festival in Appleton in 2024. They were highlighted in a new PBS concert documentary about the festival. Photo courtesy of PBS Wisconsin

RF: Often in the film, you let a whole song go, which we don’t always get in a documentary. 

CC: In the ‘90s, there were a lot of documentaries about ‘60s music and ‘70s music. They’d show Jimi Hendrix on stage for 20 seconds, and then he would cut to a talking head telling you why Jimi Hendrix is so important. 

And my response as a fan and a viewer is always: I just want to see this guy play. Just let me hear the music. One of my pet peeves is documentaries about music that don’t let you listen to the music. So in this project, we really put the music front.

RF: The festival is trying to make it a happy place for musicians. What did you learn in that area?

CC: I learned the community of Appleton really comes together to put this concept of “Midwest nice” into action. They do that not only by being good, receptive audiences, but also there are local health care providers that do things like dental cleanings, dermatology, chiropractic massage therapy, haircuts, ear testing. They provide this all for free to these touring musicians. They [musicians] have nice hotel rooms. They get fed extremely well. 

A lot of them probably don’t have the opportunity to have that kind of treatment because they’re on the road all the time. And a lot of them haven’t spent time in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin, and they come here and it’s not a place they would have imagined coming as touring musicians. Then they come here, and they’re treated like rock stars. 

A camera crew films a man in sunglasses and a tank top sitting under a canopy with audio and video equipment outdoors.
PBS Wisconsin interviewed Asher Putnam, a performer at the Mile of Music festival, in Appleton in 2024. PBS Wisconsin recently released a concert documentary about the festival. Photo courtesy of PBS Wisconsin

RF: You also zoom in on some of the volunteers and the services they’re providing. There’s some local education. What are some of the things that go beyond just those performances? 

CC: There’s a whole series of music education workshops, and these are really great for children because you don’t think of bringing your kids to a music festival. But this makes that possible. 

In partnership with Lawrence University and the music educators there and a whole community organization, they provide drumming workshops, Indonesian gamelan and [teach] how to play ukulele. So one of the shots you see in the show is about 50 people learning to play their first song on ukulele. Those are things that get the public involved and also give them a greater appreciation for what goes into making music.

Editor’s note: WPR and PBS Wisconsin make up Wisconsin Public Media.