Milwaukee has a great tradition of ethnic festivals, primarily occurring in the summer. One of those festivals is Bastille Days, celebrating French culture. It always takes place on the July weekend closest to Bastille Day, July 14th. This was the festival's 38th year.
Unlike most of the other festivals, Bastille Days does not occur at Maier Festival Park on the Lake Michigan lakefront. Instead, it takes place at Cathedral Square, along with the adjoining streets, in the downtown area. Frankly, it isn't much of a festival in the tradition of ethnic music, entertainment, and food. Rather, it is basically an opportunity for vendors of any sort to hawk their wares and sell their food along with a smattering of entertainment--essentially a fair. Still, on the Sunday afternoon that we went it provided us with a chance to enjoy a beautiful summer day and for me to take a few photos.
As indicated, much of the space is given over to vendors of whatever, not necessarily in the French "style."
The festival takes place at Cathedral Square, named for the Cathedral of St. John, the Evangelist, which sits adjacent to the square, giving me an opportunity to get a couple of shots of this modest-sized, but beautiful Catholic church, an exterior detail and a standard shot of the interior.
We did catch one act, a juggler who called himself the Fire Guy. He was quite good as a juggler and kept up a humorous and family-appropriate banter.
My favorite shot of this post was a photo of a manikin sporting a straw hat.
I converted the image to a black and white to emphasize the shadow pattern that the sun was creating on the manikin's face.
John M. Phillips
Must say I cringed when I saw the fire-eater doing his thing - pretty scary! Enjoyed the turtle and the fog. It's hard to tell from the photo whether they are made of fabric or something else.
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