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Music lovers must make it out to the annual Summerfest, an eleven-day mega festival filled with music, shows and food. Eleven stages fill the Henry Maier Festival Park and feature more than 700 bands, including some of the biggest names in the music world. The largest music festival in the world, drawing in over one million people annually, concludes with an enormous fireworks demonstration.

The Kettle Moraine State Forest consists of northern and southern units that frame Milwaukee. The Northern Unit is less than an hour's drive away from the city and features several biking and hiking trails (including part of the famous Ice Age Trail), campgrounds and fishing and hunting sites.

Engage in hands-on learning about science, nature and sustainable living at the Urban Ecology Center. The center has two outdoor "laboratories," located in two urban parks, which feature 15 acres of woodland, a lagoon and riparian habitat on the east bank of the Milwaukee River. The parks also house a habitat-themed playground, as well as seasonal swimming, boating and skating.