Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
A Beloved Event Returns to the Zoo
- With the end of the Wisconsin State Fair, you might be looking for things to do later on this week and joining us is Kimberly Graves from the Milwaukee County Zoo. And this is the week we wait for at the zoo. It's Zoo Ola Cart. And you've got some great bands that are going to be playing, lots of food, and best of all, Kim, it's going to be the animals. - Yeah, we're so excited that it's Ola Cart time this summer. Ola Cart is back. We have national headliners, local entertainment, across six stages, more than 25 food vendors, of course, the animals, and all yours, you figure, which will be open, like the goat yard, the carousel, and the trains. Well, there's truly something for everyone. So yeah, I'm thrilled to be here to tell you more about it. - Now, the bands start on Thursday night. That's, well, yeah, tell us who's going to be playing on Thursday. - To our national headliners, Thursday night, we have Deep Blue something. They're known for their hit breakfast at Tiffany's. Friday night, our up-and-coming country band, Parma Lee, that we're really excited about, and then Saturday is the legendary Wailers, featuring Junior Marvin. - Wow. - And we also have a number of, yes, local bands across all the other stages, and all of those performances are included with your admission to Ola Cart. So it's a great value and a number of musical stylings for everyone. - And you've got food from all over the area. What are some of your favorites, Kim? - Well, we are thrilled to have Faz's. It's returning. Everyone loves Faz's. They've been at the festival since the very beginning, but also I'm really excited about some of our newer vendors. So we have everything from hearty burgers to empanadas, Asian street food, gourmet tater tots. So really just a variety of offerings. You fund to walk around, as we like to say, have a snack by the seals and tacos by the tigers. - I love it. Well, you know, it's interesting too, because some of the animals are more active at night than they are during the day. - Yeah, yeah, it's a great opportunity to see them out and about, the harbor fields are really fun to watch. The Japanese macaques over at Monkey Island, and we're always getting up to something and really active and fun to watch. But yeah, it's unique for us, but unique for the animals as well, to just see them sort of after hours is really just a more laid back, relaxed view staple for the summer. - And there's been a few new births. The Eastern bongo herd, I understand, has some new babies. - We do, yes. We have an adorable little calf, an Eastern bongo. Her name is Nayiri. She will be out in the bongo yard, and we also have, as mentioned earlier, a macaque baby. It was very cute, as well as the little porcupettes over in this mommy and most buildings, so lots of babies to see this time around as well. - Now, if you want more information about Zuala carton, it gets underway this Thursday. What do we need to do? - I'm sure, so we encourage you to buy tickets in advance, if you can, at mawakizu.org. Also check out the menus and the entertainment lineups, try to plan ahead, get an idea of what you might wanna eat. Just know our food and beverage vendors this year will be accepting cart only, no cash. So, however, if you don't have cash on, you also have a cash to cart kiosks. You can convert that. Otherwise, we're just really excited to see people, the gates, and bring everyone in and just have another great year of all cart. - It is always a fun time at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Kimberly Graves, thanks for joining us today.