The Soul Rebels will headline at 5 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Friday on the Cathedral Square Park stage during the Bastille Days festival. Credit: Rick Olivier photo

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Doesn't Milwaukee's Bastille Days festival feel like our collective reward for making it through another Summerfest?

No tickets, no hand stamps, no lakefront road construction to navigate. Just music, food and adult beverages in the lovely East Town neighborhood.

It's like four days of Jazz in the Park with an accent.

The festival salutes Milwaukee's French heritage, including the towering legacy of fur trader Solomon Juneau, who founded the settlement of Juneautown in the neighborhood we now call East Town, served as the city of Milwaukee's first mayor, and in his spare time started the Milwaukee Sentinel (one of the newspaper ancestors of the Journal Sentinel).

Musical headliners include New Orleans' The Soul Rebels, who fuse the brass band tradition they love with the contemporary music they also love. The Soul Rebels' "Power = Power" mixtape, for example, includes their brassy takes on Jay Z, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," Drake, Kanye West and Bruno Mars. The Soul Rebels play at 5 and 9:15 p.m. Friday at the Cathedral Square Park stage.

Funkadesi mixes several styles of Indian music with reggae and funk. The Chicagoans play at 4 and 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Cathedral Square Park stage. (In between Funkadesi sets, festival-goers can attend a French Mass at 5:15 in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.)

Classy locals slated to perform at Bastille Days include the chanteuse Robin Pluer (11:45 a.m. and 7:15 p.m. Thursday, 4:30 p.m. Sunday), Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound (11:45 a.m. and 7:15 p.m. Friday), I'm Not a Pilot (9:45 p.m. Thursday), The WhiskeyBelles (8:45 p.m. Friday), R.A.S. Movement (9:45 p.m. Saturday) and Vic & Gab (10 p.m. Saturday).

Indulge your Francophilia by taking in Madame Gigi's Outrageous French Can-Cans (multiple performances Thursday through Saturday) or a learn-to-speak-French session.

The Madison Medical Beaux Arts Stage will host daily cooking shows from local chefs (noon, 12:50 p.m. and 1:40 p.m.) as well as wine (2:30 p.m., 3:20 p.m.), beer (2:50 p.m.) and whiskey (3:40 p.m.) demonstrations. Sit-down wine tastings of beverages from around the world will take place at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets for the sit-down sessions will be $35 at the festival.

Browse the complete festival schedule at goo.gl/BCG8rZ.

IF YOU GO

What: Bastille Days festival

Where: Cathedral Square Park neighborhood downtown

Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Admission: Free