For more than 30 years, Milwaukee’s Summerfest has featured some of music’s biggest acts, drawing fans from across the United States to one of the most unique settings available in the world. On July 2, one of those musical acts will be veteran Madison rapper Jerome Hunt, a.k.a. Romey, who will be headlining the Miller Oasis Stage at 7:30 p.m.
“Headlining Summerfest is another dream of mine come true. I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Romey tells Madison365.
Summerfest will take place over three consecutive weekends, June 23-25, June 30-July 2, July 7-9. The Miller Lite Oasis is centrally located on the Summerfest grounds and has previously featured artists like X Ambassadors, Timeflies, Fun, Maroon 5, Train, Imagine Dragons, Goo Goo Dolls, Fitz and the Tantrums, Arctic Monkeys and Jason Aldean.
Romey tells Madison365 that the people at Summerfest contacted him after the buzz he created performing at the Milwaukee Bucks halftime on April 7. Romey, a lifelong Milwaukee Bucks fan, brought the crowd to its feet at the intermission of the Bucks game against the Boston Celtics where he performed his new anthem “Fear The Deer (Championship Anthem)” which pays homage to the organization that inspired him.
“That was an amazing experience. Nobody left for concessions at halftime. And afterward, the president of the Bucks gave me a big hug. The owner told me that it was one of the best halftime presentations he had seen,” Romey recalls. “They really showed me love and embraced me and basically just told me that we’re going to be doing future collaborations.
“They had heard about the success of Fear the Dear and I got a call from the Summerfest people asking me to perform,” Romey adds. “I told them it would be a huge honor and definitely told him that I had been wanting to do that for so long. So to get perform at halftime at the Bucks and now to be a headliner at Summerfest back to back in the same year and at the same time … it’s an incredible feeling.”
Romey has just released his Fear the Dear video (below). He says that it’s been incredible meeting so many people in the Bucks’ organization both before and after his halftime performance at Fiserv Forum.
“I appreciate the position that the Bucks put me in because the NBA put me on their main page and just blasted me out to those 64 million [people]. I appreciate the way the Bucks really supported me all the way and got behind me and my movement. It really changed my life.
“I just got a plaque for Fear the Dear and on digital radio tracks my song was number two on independent radio,” he adds. “But we’re on to the to the next thing.”
That next thing is Summerfest on July 2. On the Miller Oasis stage, Romey will immediately precede Vincent Van Great, a Milwaukee singer, rapper, and producer and Lupe Fiasco, a Chicago-born, Grammy award-winning American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur who rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor.
“I’ve always done big shows, but the [Milwuakee Bucks’] Fiserv [Forum] and now [Milwaukee] Summerfest headline shows would definitely be amongst the biggest,” Romey says. “This Summerfest headlining is going to be very special to me. It’s going to be a big crowd and I can’t wait to perform.”
