content: I've been to several events at Willow Island, most recently the Bratfest over Memorial Day weekend, 2014.\n\n+ Staff and volunteers are friendly and helpful\n+ Plenty of drink and food tents; fairly easy to access\n+ Several ATM trailers available \n- Parking is a pain; the single entrance/exit to the Coliseum lot quickly jams and backs-up traffic onto John Nolan Drive\n- Primarily gravel surface gets dry and very dusty\n\n+ Drink and food prices are reasonable, given the venue\n\nEvent specific thoughts:\n+ JJO Bandcamp: well run, well organized, great stages, very good event\n+ Polar plunge: well run, well organized, easy to get in-and-out-of, great tents\n\n- Bratfest.\nI used to really enjoy Bratfest. I went every year, and loved kicking-off the summer by listening to a few bands, partaking in a brat and a brew, and hanging out with friends.\n\nUnfortunately, the event has apparently reconfigured a few of the stages, and not for the better. One in particular, the Lifest stage (which featured predominantly religious-y acts), appeared to have the most powerful sound system of all of the stages, and by parking it smack-dab in the middle of the venue, the sound crushed the other stages. It's as if the event was trying to make everyone listen to the \""music\"" from that stage, no matter what.\n\nI have run FOH sound for years and know quite a bit about professional sound reproduction. The Lifest stage flew eight (8) full-sized mid/high cabinets and ran countless (I couldn't see them all) subs; due to the configuration, sound from this stage bled over into every other stage and interfered with the sound from other acts. I love bass, but the constant thump/drone from this stage was obnoxious and annoying.\n\nFor comparison, the Baker Tilly stage had six (6) half-sized mid/high cabinets and what appeared to be four subs. Despite our best intentions, we couldn't hear the vocals, drums, or bass guitar for the acts that we wanted to see on this stage, thanks solely to the overpowering system of the Lifest stage. \n\nThe Lifest stage was so loud, that we could hear it *over* the Ho-Chunk Gaming stage (located several hundred yards away), and we continued to hear the Lifest stage clearly as we walked to our car, which was parked well beyond the Coliseum Bar. \n\nIf I were a sponsor of one of the other stages, I would be extremely angry with the new configuration. I'm sure those sponsors ponied good money for the stages; we quite couldn't hear the emcees promoting and talking about the sponsors for any of the other stages. I don't understand why the one stage had to be so \""in your face.\""\n\nUntil the event organizers can level-out the playing/sound field, I'm afraid this was my last Bratfest event.\n\nAnd finally... what's with the hyper-religious undertone of this event now? I'm not anti-religion by any means, but is there a reason that so many of the acts are from the christian/gospel genre? A quick glance of the line-ups shows that more than 60% are preachy bands/rappers/DJs. Maybe the rumors about the founder and his newfound and boisterous love of religion are true. *sigh*