Our final day of Summerfest started with some Country Music. Despite being someone who doesn’t often listen to country, I had heard of Hailey Whitters and was excited to see her perform.
Before Hailey Whitters took the Connection Stage fellow country singer Greylan James had performed there, and most people stayed put. After looking at the lineup this made even more sense as the stage was seemingly ‘Country Thunder’ lite today with acts like Morgan Wade and Scotty McCreery dominating the afternoon.
Having arrived well before Whitters’ set start time and with hunger speeding us along, we determined we had enough time to grab some sandwiches. We got back with time left to spare.
When the show began, she got up on stage and dove right into a song while the crowd cheered. The fun, catchy pop country got some of the crowd moving right from the start. Granted it was still an earlier set, so it was only still a some with a decent chunk of the crowd enjoying from their seats.
Hailey Whitters got Hitched
Storytime came early in the set with her catching Wisconsin up on how she is now, officially, hitched. This included informing the crowd of how her Midwest Iowa wedding went down. Stylistically, she spoke as if she was telling it to a bestie at a bar, and she confidently she let it all unfold up on stage.
After this personal story, she went straight into one of her hit songs, “Plain Jane.” Which again confidently outlined who she was and how she was “Raised” which coincides as the title of her 2022 album.
About midway through her set, we were treated to a pleasant surprise. New Music! Her set list that day included the premier of “Tie’r Down”. The song was released after the Summerfest performance, on July 21.
A personal favorite of mine was “Fillin’ my Cup”. The tune was such a catchy song I found myself singing and dancing along! Lyrically it was your usual summer party fare, but she had worked in a fun chorus and a great dance friendly beat!
Throughout most of the show, she had a guitar with this beautiful, personalized strap. The white strap had her name emblazoned in blue with red hearts surrounding it. In particular it complimented her blue baby-doll dress well. Overall, her outfit came off as Wendy meets little Bo-Peep, though not in a bad way. The flowy dress almost had that night gown look to it. Her hair was tightly braided on each side. And on this cloudy day she wore her sunglasses.
Catch Hailey Live!
If you are looking to fill up your cup and catch Hailey Whitters, you will unfortunately be looking at some travel as she does not currently have any Illinois sets booked. With that said she does have upcoming dates in several neighboring states.
Your best bets are probably dates in Green Bay, WI or Louisville, KY.
Her Green Bay set sees her opening for Luke Bryan at the Resch Center on October 13th. Tickets are available for between $50 and $220.
For a festival setting you can catch Hailey at Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville, KY on Sunday September 17th. One day tickets are a somewhat pricey $140 while 4-day passes are going for $340.
Her day is headlined by Bruno Mars, Blondie, and Jon Batiste.
