GRIDLIFE brings a new motorsports and music festival to Wisconsin

GRIDLIFE Summer Apex is a one-of-a-kind event combining music and motorsports for three days of high-speed entertainment. The festival is hosted by GRIDLIFE, a Chicago-based motorsports sanctioning body that hosts music and motorsports events across the country.

Founded in 2013 by Chris Stewart, the goal is to bring together music and motorsports communities. The inaugural Summer Apex festival will take place July 26-28 at Road America in Elkhart Lake.

While it may be the first year of this festival, the lineup will not disappoint. There will be a packed schedule of racing and drifting events during the day followed by an evening of music. Mainstage karaoke will be hosted by T-Pain on Friday night, and Liquid Stranger and deadmau5 will play the mainstage Saturday night.

Road America is one of just a handful of facilities in the country for motor sporting events. The facility features a permanent road course that started hosting races in 1955, and has remained largely unchanged since its inception.

“I think we’re really approaching this as, like, the headliner of the festival is the venue,” said GRIDLIFE founder Chris Stewart.

“It’s a really magical place just to spend a weekend, especially if you’re into cars,” Stewart added. 

Stewart describes the first year of the event was spent “[planting] the seed that will grow the garden, that will be the GRIDLIFE community around this event.”

This vision influenced the choices for music headliners this year. Both artists have an established fan base and cast a wide net that helps bring in a diverse audience for the music portion of the festival.

“What we try to do with the music side of it is to use it as a conduit so that we can bring people closer to the community that is car culture and motorsports culture,” Stewart said.

From drifting to deadmau5, attendees will have no shortage of things to discover this weekend. Beyond the music, the festival will feature a vendor area selling merchandise from a range of automotive brands, the GRIDLIFE arcade full of vintage arcade cabinets and racing simulators and more.

It doesn’t matter if you’re attending for the music or you’re a car enthusiast, everyone is welcome at Road America this weekend for this unique event. Tickets are still available for all three days of the festival and can be purchased on the Summer Apex website.