APPLETON, Wis. — There are some challenges to playing live music in the back of a moving city transit bus.
Things move. Busses stop. Roundabouts.
But Appleton musician Walt Hamburger said there are advantages, too.
“My favorite part is the crowd can’t leave,” Hamburger said. “I pulled on the stop (cord) and it wasn’t on, so we really had them. I just can’t imagine not doing the bus. It’s a thing that is unique to this festival.”
For the first time since 2019, the Mile of Music festival in Appleton is operating a bus as one of its stages.
There was leaning, shifting and bracing as the bus made its way around the city with Hamburger and Todd Balke jamming at the back for a full house. Or, full bus.
“I’m dizzy,” Balke said after the performance.
“I almost fell over. My teeth are still intact. That’s good,” Hamburger added. “The bus is special, right? “
“It is special,” Balke said.
It is operated in partnership with Valley Transit.
“This is an absolute blast. It’s just crazy,” said Ron McDonald, the general manager of the service. “The passengers will start clapping, they’re stomping their feet, they’re going down the road clapping. It just doesn’t get much better than this on a bus.”
It’s also a way the operation can support the event and community.
“We’re a part of the entire Fox Cities, we’re about connecting the Fox Cities,” he said. “This event is a Fox Cities event. People come from all over the region for this event and we’re excited to be part of this. This is the ten-year anniversary and we’re excited to be here.”
Hamburger is a touring musician and a regular at Mile of Music.
“When this festival started, I was a little shocked with its success,” he said. “Up to that point, playing original music was not something that you could necessarily book at venues and make any kind of money or do as a job. None of us are rich, but we can get by and all; think a lot of that because of the Mile of Music and what they brought to the city and people just came out.”