PITTONKATONK 2025
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— Global Music Festival
PITTON
KA
TONK
FRIDAY MAY 9, 2025
SATURDAY MAY 10, 2025
VIETNAM VETERANS PAVILION
PITTSBURGH, PA.
NEW THIS YEAR!
Cevapi Fundraiser Dinner. A throwback to the early years of the festival when we made traditional Serbian-style sausage sandwiches. This year, we are bringing it back as a ticketed fundraising event.
Proceeds to benefit the festival.
Friday's Lineup
Kaleta and Super Yamba Band
Brooklyn’s Kaleta & Super Yamba Band are fronted by Afrobeat and Juju veteran Leon Ligan-Majek a.k.a. Kaleta. The singer/guitarist from the West African country of Benin Republic lived his adolescent life in Lagos, Nigeria where Afrobeat was born. Kaleta’s guitar chops earned him decades of touring and recording with Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Lauryn Hill and more.
Kaleta got his start in the late 70s performing in church and was soon after picked up by iconic Juju master and world music pioneer King Sunny Ade. A few years later Fela Kuti came calling. Kaleta would go on to tour the world playing guitar for the King of Afrobeat in his storied band Egypt 80 through the 1980s and into the 1990s.
Ames Harding & the Mirage is a 4-piece band who’s unique blend of world-influenced indie is as catchy as it is nuanced. The project was started by Ames Harding, who grew up in Egypt, India, and Latin America, and combines psychedelia, folk, and world music. The band is made up of Eli Weidman on drums, Mike Saunders on bass, and AJ Arnett on percussion. Their genre-bending songs, built on rich sonic landscapes, surreal lyricism, and percussion, will truly take you on a trip.
RAMBUNCTIOUS: Noisy, very active, and hard to control, usually as a result of excitement or youthful energy. Nine horns + one drummer = dance party. You make a title, we make a song. Toronto rabble-rouser Michael Louis Johnson leads jams of swing, funk, balkan-beat and more.
Saturday's Lineup
Lemon Bucket Orchestra
Lemon Bucket Orkestra are Toronto’s original guerrilla-folk-party-punks. The award-winning crew has been called frenetic, charismatic, and gloriously anarchic by the New York Times,
Equal parts exhilarating precision and reckless abandon, LBO live is a truly immersive experience mixing sweat and tears with audience chorales and howling at the moon. You can hear that journey on their latest album Cuckoo (self-released, May 2024). It’s signature LBO: powerful Ukrainian polyphony and driving Balkan rhythms filtered through hip hop, punk and jazz and a whole range of global influences and purpose accrued from their eclectic global journeys and polycultural home city of Toronto alike.
Undertow Brass Band
Undertow Brass Band (FKA What Cheer? Brigade) is a brass band from Providence, RI, USA. We prove that great parties need no electricity.
Undertow Brass Band, formerly known as What Cheer? Brigade, is an energetic party band from Providence, RI, USA. We play dance music without microphones, so we can make noise almost anywhere. We are loud, tight, and love to dance with crowds, offering mobile moments of intense revelry.
Our music includes covers and originals, taking inspiration from genres ranging from Balkan, New Orleans, and other global brass traditions, as well as electronic dance music, classical, and pop. The band emerged from the Providence underground music scene in 2005, inspired by the unlikely overlap between the intensity of punk rock and brass. From these origins, the band developed its original sound, with one foot in Balkan tradition, the other in the American punk scene.
OKAN
Okan is a Canadian Afro-Cuban jazz group, whose core members are Cuban Canadian musicians Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne
The band is called TAKAAT (meaning noise in Tamashek). TAUREG POST PUNK EXPERIMENTAL featuring the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar
Detroit Party Marching Band
ROCK YOUR FACE OFF!!!
We seek to establish a platform for artistic expression in efforts to further the economic and creative advancement of artists, as well the active engagement of diverse audiences.
Timbeleza is a community group that is a Brazilian batucada based in Pittsburgh, PA.
Colonel Eagleburger’s Highstepping Goodtime Band
Schenley Local No. 412
May Day Marching Band
We are a community-based band that welcomes members of all skill levels. We like playing fun and funky music at parades, rallies, protests, picnics, fiestas and other events. We also love to show up random places and surprise ya!
The KRUNK Movement is a year-round youth production program designed for students in
grades 8 through 12, focusing on the elements of hip-hop, including but not limited to
songwriting, production, art, and technology.
REVIEWS
Pittonkatonk is more than just the annual picnic; it also does educational outreach year-round in the Sto-Rox school district and elsewhere. But the picnic is its keynote event, last year drawing a crowd estimated at about 3,000.
Bill O’Discoll
WESA 90.5 FM
Authentic and grassroots, Pittonkatonk erases boundaries between performers and attendees, which means there are no stages, green rooms, tickets or corporate sponsors. Sounds representing West Africa, Chicago, Providence and more will fill the pavilion and spill into the park actively engaging listeners in live performance. It’s uplifting to see, hear, and be a part of.
Jennifer Baron
NEXT Pittsburgh
“You’re part of something bigger, something magical. You’re part of something where everyone values you for who you are. And in that moment, you can totally let loose and be free.”
Meg Fair
Pittsburgh City Paper
The focus of Pittonkatonk is on community. It’s about bringing together people who might otherwise never convene, and blurring the line between performer and spectator.
Caralyn Green
Pittsburgh City Paper
More Info About Pittonkatonk?
Vietnam Veterans Pavilion
Schenley Park
Bike Parking provided by Bike Pgh
Rideshare encouraged
FOOD / DRINK
show your pittonka-pride
NEW SHIRTS COMING SOON
You can register here for email updates
Pittonkatonk is
supported by
PARTNERSHIPS
FAQ for the festival
EVENT IS RAIN OR SHINE
VIETNAM VETERANS PAVILION IS ACCESSIBLE VIA STAIRS FROM THE OVAL/SOCCCER FIELDS.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gR1Em5Ti2vjH62Jq6
Festival is in a park
Festival begins at 1pm
Parking around the park is limited, so we strongly encourage
Ride share - carpool
Public Transportation (bus)
Biking - there are bike racks
(Bikes must be removed by the end of the event)
Uber/Lyft
Parachuting
Paddleboarding
Space Shuttle
Teleportation
WHAT TO BRING
Reusable water bottle
A blanket for the grass
Sunscreen
Umbrella
RAINCOAT
sweatshirt
earplugs
money for donations and vendors (most accept cards)
VALID I.D. (state id, passport, other form of valid identification)
WHY DONATE?
PITTONKATONK brings real deal bands to Pittsburgh without a ticket price. Please donate what is comfortable for you.
We accept payments via Venmo, Paypal, or to our Go Fund Me
PITTONK IS GOING GREEN!!!
Pittonkatonk's Zero Waste since 2019!
- We have partnered with the PA Resources Council to reduce waste and divert it from the landfill through recycling and compost.
- In 2021, the festival diverted 83% of its waste – the most diversion yet– and in 2022 we aim to be a recognized Zero Waste Event by diverting 90%+ from the landfill! We need your help to get there!
Here’s how you can help:
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- Use PRC’s Zero Waste Stations, located throughout the festival:
- Compost
- Food vendor packaging is also compostable!
- Cups from East End are compostable!
- Recycling
- Aluminum cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles (please empty before throwing them in!)
- Cardboard and paper
- NO other plastic (cups, containers, clamshells, plastic utensils)
- Landfill
- Everything else! Zip ties, plastic clingwrap, etc
- NO food, liquids, or compostable or recyclable items
- Compost
- Use PRC’s Zero Waste Stations, located throughout the festival:
- For more Zero Waste tips, visit www.prc.org/programs/zwpa/