MILWAUKEE— While thousands of fans pack the Summerfest grounds each day for music, food, and fun, there’s a local crew working behind the scenes to make sure every performance is seen in full.
That crew is Mindpool Live, a Milwaukee-based production company responsible for the massive LED screens and live video feeds on some of Summerfest’s biggest stages.
Josh Adams, the company’s president and owner, has been helping bring Summerfest the best visuals for over 15 years. Helping shape how fans experience live music. Not just in Milwaukee, but all over the world.
“I’ve been to, you know, dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of festivals around the world, and this is easily the most, clean, purpose built, comfortable festival I’ve ever been to. And like I said, I’ve been to festivals on four continents,” Josh Adams said to WTMJ.
Mindpool’s team manages everything you see during a show- from clos-ups of the artist, to sweeping crowd shots, to custom visuals that match the music. The goal is to make everything feel like the front row. Not everyone gets the chance to get front row to their favorite artist, but with Mindpool’s visuals, fans are able to experience concerts all the same.
Adams says that on a typical day, there are around 70 people working between camera operators, engineers, camera shaders, video directors, producers, playback operators, production managers, and technical managers. They’ll start anytime during the day depending on scheduling. Sometimes there’s overnights they are working, around the clock, and sometimes they start at 10 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. The team is full of joy for what they do, and the production shows up every year no matter what time of day it is.
“When the festival grounds open, we go live and you’re seeing some type of imagery on the screen, all day,” Adams says. “When the evenings come is when we really put the camera systems into play. So in the afternoon we start shooting bands. When the crowds start getting thick and you can’t get close to the stage, that’s when we really start to provide an opportunity for people to get that kind of up close and personal experience with the band in an artful way. That’s a big part of what we do is make sure that not only are we providing a better customer or attendee experience with the live video feed, but we try to do that in an artful way to create a
visual that’s complementary to the performance that you’re seeing on the stage.”
Mindpool’s work is rarely seen outside the screens- but their fingerprints are all over the Summerfest experience. Whether you’re there for hip-hop, country, EDM, or rock, odds are you’ve watched a set shaped by their crew.
“It’s a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of commitment. Our team at Mindpool, I can’t tell you how fortunate I am to be able to work with them. Our team is, I would say, second to none. I wouldn’t rather do this with anybody else,” Josh Adams tells WTMJ.
