Indian Summer Festival

Indian Summer Festival is the brainchild of Butch Roberts, a Milwaukee Police Officer. In 1985, his dream was to have an American Indian Festival to add to the other ethnic festivals that were being held on the Summerfest grounds, Henry Maier Festival Park. Roberts recruited the Warren and DeNomie families to organize the event. These three families were instrumental in getting Indian Summer off the ground.

It took two years of planning and organizational assistance from Irish Fest to kick off Indian Summer’s first festival in 1987. The festival received a $5,000.00 grant from The Milwaukee Foundation and a cash loan from the Klumb family to provide funding for the first event. The first festival was a huge success.

Indian Summer Festival, a 501 C 3 organization, is thankful for the wisdom, guidance and support provided by our corporate sponsors and the sponsoring Wisconsin tribes and casinos. We are also grateful for the dedication and commitment of our volunteer board of directors, committee chair people and festival workers. There would not be a festival without our sponsors and volunteers.

Indian Summer Festival Homepage