Milwaukee shut itself down to celebrate. The Brewers' championship parade stepped off at 10 a.m. Friday from North 4th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue, winding through downtown before ending at Henry Maier Festival Park on the lakefront for a free fan rally — the city's first World Series championship celebration in its 57-year franchise history, two days after the Brewers closed out the Tampa Bay Rays to win it all.

Milwaukee Public Schools canceled classes for all students and staff Friday so the city could turn out for the parade and rally, and turn out it did: Fox6's estimate put attendance at more than three-quarters of a million people lining Wisconsin Avenue and packing the Summerfest grounds, in a metro area of under 1.6 million.

A Wait Nobody Thought Would End

The Brewers had come agonizingly close before. In 1982, the franchise lost the World Series in seven games to the Cardinals — and Milwaukee held a parade for the team anyway, a civic tradition organizers leaned on again this year when planning Friday's celebration, only this time with a trophy to show for it.

SCHOOL WAS CANCELED. NOBODY MINDED.

Players, coaches and team staff rode through downtown on double-decker buses as fans chanted and threw confetti, with a ticketed amphitheater program at the rally featuring speeches from team executives and players. The celebration capped a run in which Milwaukee jumped out to a commanding series lead before Tampa Bay forced extra innings to stay alive a little longer, only for the Brewers to finish the job days later.

For a small-market franchise that has long been defined by its loyal but championship-starved fanbase, the scale of Friday's turnout registered as its own kind of statement. Team and city officials have not yet said whether the Summerfest grounds rally site will host a return engagement next year, but for one morning, Milwaukee made clear it wasn't going to let the moment pass quietly.