Pere Marquette Park will be Convention Fest extension during RNC

Pere Marquette Park, which is included in the credentials-only "hard" security zone for next week's Republican National Convention, will serve as an extension of Convention Fest for delegates next week.

On Wednesday, Two Birds Event Group filed an application with the City of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services to use the Milwaukee County park to set up a beer garden for the RNC.

Convention Fest is a vendor fair at the RNC that will showcase local Milwaukee businesses for RNC attendees. The event will be outside the Baird Center, which along with the UW-Milwaukee Panther Area and Fiserv Forum, will host the main events of the week.

Elise Dickens, the chief executive officer for the Republican National Committee team that's organizing the RNC, said the park will add space for the "delegate experience" at the convention.

"We had an overwhelming response from local businesses wanting to participate in the Convention Fest, and knowing we're going to have so many guests — upwards of 50,000 people — we wanted additional space and needed additional space," Dickens said.

Pere Marquette Park was at the center of debate for months over the city's protest and demonstration plans. The park was originally expected to be a city-designated demonstration location, but it was rejected by nearby businesses, the primary group planning to protest, the RNC and Republicans. Top party officials lobbied the U.S. Secret Service to include the park in its security zone.

When the Secret Service announced its final security perimeter for the RNC, the park was notably included in the hard security zone, meaning it will only be accessible to credentialed attendees. The Secret Service cited the RNC's rental of the Milwaukee County Historical Society on the park's southwest corner as the reason it was included in the perimeter.

The hard perimeter includes areas where a someone with Secret Service protection could be present. Dickens said that the committee expects some VIPs to attend Convention Fest in the park.

The city now has two other demonstration zones, one north and one south of the convention venues.

The most prominent RNC protest group rejected the park too, albeit for different reasons. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, on behalf of Coalition to March on the RNC 2024, sued the City of Milwaukee over its demonstration plans, saying it violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A federal judge ruled this week against the ACLU, writing in his decision that the protest group cannot march through the hard security zone, where they had hoped to cross Kilbourn Avenue next to the park.

Tom Daykin and Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Tristan Hernandez can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pere Marquette Park will be extension of Convention Fest during RNC