6pm-930pm
Behind Blumcraft
$10 suggested donation (give what you can)
All ages
Refreshments served
Babyland Collective and Pittonkatonk present
What Cheer? Brigade (prob, RI 18 piece radical marching band) touring in support of their new album.
Blak Rapp Madusa (Drum Lines & Hard Rhymes) About 1Hood Media Artist
Poor Righteous teacher lyricist organizer and activist. the music is about the movement and new afrika
(DL&HR is a collective project between Soy Sos, Timbeleza & 1Hood Media)
Homing – dark brassy sounds from the underground.
Dj Pandemic Pete (global dancehall soundtrack between acts)
About Babyland
Babyland is a collective of artists/craftsman located on the first floor of the Blumcraft Building. It is an artist space with a shared woodshed, metal shop and screen printing facility. Many of your favorite craftspeople probably work out of this spot.
Summer is about to hit! Are you excited? I know I am. I’m working on a lot of fun stuff for later in the summer. But in the meantime check out what we have coming up in the next few weeks.
Brooklyn’s Super Yamba Band comprises a unique blend of inspiration born of 70s/80s West-African Afrobeat and Psychedelic Funk, with a live energy that moves everyone in the room to dance.
THE LINEUP
La Misa Negra (Oakland, CA)
What Cheer? Brigade (Providence, RI)
Afro Yaqui (Pittsburgh, PA)
Black Bear Combo (Chicago, IL)
Detroit Party Marching Band (Detroit, MI)
Lowdown Brass Band (Chicago, IL)
Extraordinary Rendition Band (Providence, RI)
Timbeleza (Pittsburgh, PA)
May Day Marching Band (Pittsburgh, PA)
May Day Choir (Pittsburgh, PA)
Detroit Pleasure Society (Detroit, MI)
Drum Lines and Hard Rhymes (Pittsburgh, PA)
Colonel Eagleburger’s Highstepping Goodtime Band (Pittsburgh, PA)
Pittonkatonk is music without boundaries. Since 2014, Pittonkatonk is music in public spaces that belong to everyone, with no stage, no doors, and no right way to express yourself. There is no admission fee, no corporate sponsors, and nothing is for sale. It is a potluck event where people bring food, drink, music, dancing, and the desire to come together to celebrate music and community.
We connect people with national and local musicians, activists, and educators in order to empower them to use their love of performing music to engage the world around them. Our mission is to promote music performance as a means of achieving positive personal, social, and political outcomes. To do this we create events that engender purposeful music making on a communal level, blurring the lines between performer and spectator, entertainment and activism. We work with adults and teens from Pittsburgh to create public performance opportunities designed to give a voice vulnerable people in our city.
Our goal is create a musical space for everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, class, or religion. Pittonkatonk brings together bands ranging from Balkan brass to activist marching bands, samba to New Orleans swing. How about a house show for the whole city? How about a family reunion with 2000 people you’ve never met? How about a neighborhood party with 90 neighborhoods? That’s what we’re about. Pittonkatonk works because we make a call to action and, for the past three years, the community has answered. This year, we want to join forces with again you to make our city more inclusive, progressive, and welcoming.
• Using music to promote fair and just relations between people and society. #MusicAndJustice
• Empowering people to use music to engage the world around them. #StrengthThruMusic
• Using music to achieve positive social and political outcomes. #MusicalResistance
• FREE AND OPEN TO ALL MAY DAY BRASS FESTIVAL BBQ at the VIETNAM VETERANS PAVILION in SCHENLEY PARK.
• Pittonkatonk 2016 had over 220 participating musicians & a crowd of over 3500 people.
DONATE, VOLUNTEER, SUPPORT
Just because there is no ticket price doesn’t mean we don’t need your support. Your monetary, potluck, and volunteer contributions will help create a festival unlike anything else in the city of Pittsburgh. What do we need? We need your help getting the word out, collecting donations, helping us bring together a gathering of folks from all over the city. So share our event page, flier, and indiegogo.
Friday March 3 Pandemic is back with guest Dj Juan Diego for another night of global dancehall. Pandemic Pete will be serving up more balkan dancehall, gypsy punk rock, cumbia, afrobeat, azonto, kwaito, global house, and more.
We are still putting together the details and confirming the show. But looks like Black Bear Combo the fiery balkan group from Chicago will be playing here on Thursday 3/9 w/ local Homing. More to come. Stay tuned.
Pandemic Dance Party is back with special guest DJ SMI (of Afroheat).
Pandemic is going into it’s 12 year strong w/ guests from other global parties as well as national and international artists. Every first friday pandemic caps off the Penn Ave Unblurred Events with a global dance party. Pandemic prides itself in an all inclusive trip around the globe where dj’s play a variety of traditional and contemporary dance music. Nowhere else in Pittsburgh do you hear Latin American Hip Hop, Afrohouse, Thai Pop, Brazilian Samba, Balkan Brass, Turkish Bass, Bhangra, Bollywood and more.
Pandemic presents a night of live psychedelic cumbia and tropical music from Chicago’s own Dos Santos. Dos Santos fuse traditional latin american cumbia sounds w/ the psychedelic soundscapes. There sound references the Andeas Mountain regions of Peru in the 1970s. They were emerging artist by the Chicago Reader and have performed on NPR’s Alt Latino and more.
Dos Santos performed in Pittsburgh in mid 2016 at Bayardstown Social club to a full house. Check them out as well as opening sets by Pandemic Pete and crew
Turning 11 years old. Kinda a big deal. Thats a lot of long sweaty nights filled w/ dance music from around the globe. Thats over 300 parties in 11 years featuring live brass, cumbia, bhangra, afrobeats, and more. We have hosted bands from Romania, Brazil, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and even Iran. Thanks for supporting us and big thanks to the Brillobox for hosting us during our highs and our lows.
See you on Dec 2nd for another celebration with guest Joro Boro. Joro is the NYC global bass charlatan mixing Balkan, Tropical, Global Glitch and Etnofunk.
A Joint Venture
Afarmusicgroup, Truth&Rites & Pandemic.
The Meditations – Original Channel Once recording artists
(description below)
with King Banga with Truth & Rites
Djs Pandemic Pete, Shawn Watson and more tba.
Truth and Rites is members of the legendary Swamp Band
A Roots Reggae Band based in Pittsburgh combines the talents of the area’s finest reggae musicians. SWAMMP Band members Errol “Froggy ” Francis (vocals) Lloyd “Cookie” Willacy (guitar) and JJ Smith (drums) together with Rasta Bob on bass play the real roots music Jamaica is famed for plus variety of styles to round out the sound entertaining all within earshot. Come dance or just listen as TnR transports you to the heart of Reggae Culture whether on a festival stage, in a corner restaurant or in your own back yard
plus DJ Pandemic Pete
Shawn Watson & SMI (of Afroheat)
SALEM’s Event Center
2911 Penn Ave
Pgh, PA 15201
doors at 9:30pm
Just a little over a month away until our 11 Year Anniversary Party. Details coming soon
Filastine has been a huge influence on Pandemic. His releases have really inspired our style of presenting music. Watch his series entitled Abandon.
Check out my man Erick Jaimez and his new release…
The Meditations – Original Channel Once recording artists
(description below)
with King Banga with Truth & Rites
Truth and Rites is members of the legendary Swamp Band
A Roots Reggae Band based in Pittsburgh combines the talents of the area’s finest reggae musicians. SWAMMP Band members Errol “Froggy ” Francis (vocals) Lloyd “Cookie” Willacy (guitar) and JJ Smith (drums) together with Rasta Bob on bass play the real roots music Jamaica is famed for plus variety of styles to round out the sound entertaining all within earshot. Come dance or just listen as TnR transports you to the heart of Reggae Culture whether on a festival stage, in a corner restaurant or in your own back yard
PANDEMIC DANCE PARTY 