The 12th annual Pittonkatonk music festival returns to Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park Vietnam Veterans Pavilion on Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 with a full lineup of musicians from around the world.
Pittonkatonk, the city’s May Day Brass Band Picnic, is a city-wide backyard barbeque where you can hear groups perform in styles ranging from Afrobeat to samba to folk-party-punk. It’s a free festival that celebrates musical diversity right in the heart of Pittsburgh.
“Each year it brings in different people because maybe they come for one reason, and then they come back the next year with their friends and family because they’re like, ‘Oh, I went and saw this amazing samba group. Have you ever seen them?’” said Pete Spynda, organizer and director of Pittonkakonk.
Spynda said he’s been producing parties and events around Pittsburgh, including world music, since 2005. And in 2012, a group from Providence, R.I. now known as Undertow Brass Band (FKA What Cheer? Brigade), was coming through town looking for a place to perform. Spynda reached out to some friends, and they decided to use a garage in Highland Park.
“The first year, we just decided collaboratively to make it a potluck and BYOB and have a local band open and then [Undertow] perform in the evening,” Spynda said. “We had about 150 people show up for that party.” The next year, the band returned and about 350 people showed up, taking over a significant part of the neighborhood. Looking toward the following year, Spynda said he realized it was time to find a bigger space.
“I started doing research on Pittsburgh’s park systems and found Vietnam Veterans Pavilion in Schenley,” he said. “That’s when we decided to invite other bands to join.”
Those first few bands included the Detroit Party Marching Band (who will again be at this year’s event), a few groups from Chicago and a couple Pittsburgh-based bands. What would soon be known officially as Pittonkatonk officially moved to Schenley in 2014. The space is ideal, Spynda said, because it’s so centrally located, has access to a playground for kids and has more of an open feeling than other local venues.
What initially began as a brass and mobile brass band event has grown to include groups like Okan, a Canadian Afro-Cuban jazz group; the rhythm section of the rock group Mdou Moctar, TAKATT; and youth voices from Pittsburgh’s 1Hood and The KRUNK Movement.
Spynda has many great memories of how Pittonkatonk has evolved over the years (including some of the challenges of COVID times), but said he loves how families keep coming back, how the performing bands have the opportunity to mingle and giving Pittsburgh the opportunity to see groups that likely wouldn’t put the city on their tour route otherwise. The festival also celebrates a strong social justice message.
“Creating those kinds of moments where people come for one thing and experience something totally different and just get their minds melted has been pretty amazing,” Spynda said.
This year’s Pittonkatonk added a new night, Friday, May 9, and music will be from 7-10 p.m. On Saturday, May 10, the event will run most of the day from 1-10 p.m. There will be regional food and drink vendors on-site. Bring a camping chair, blanket, sunscreen and — just in case — an umbrella.
