Last July, the first Northside Music Festival, featuring 75 bands, brought a wide variety of music to the Deutschtown neighborhood. Festival organizer Ben Soltesz was pleased with the results of that inaugural offering.

“It worked out really well,” he said.

He cited two aspects as particularly successful. The first was that the festival paid bands a good rate for their time performing. The other was the close-together nature of the venues, allowing attendees to visit more locations and see more music.

This weekend, the Northside Music Festival is back with around 80 bands and artists. With a diverse musical lineup listing from Friday to Sunday, the festival is a great showcase for talented musicians and for the neighborhood.

“It worked for the bands and the musicians, and they appreciated it. The people who came to it appreciated it. You’re not worried about missing something. It’s a more compact footprint and a smaller schedule to look at,” Soltesz said of the inaugural event.

“We kind of picked a lot of the best bands that are out there and we have everything that you want to see within a short walking distance,” he said.

The festival will span a number of stages in public areas, as well as local venues including The Government Center, Allegheny Elks Lodge #339 and Allegheny City Brewing. Music will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and will continue throughout the day Saturday.

“We have a big stage in the street on Friday, and then on Saturday that remains and we extend into Allegheny Commons East Park.”

The music in the park will be held from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, while the street stage on Foreland Street will be rocking from 2 to 11 p.m. Each act’s set will last around 40-45 minutes.

“I look at the lineup that we have and I’m just like, ‘I wish I was just able to sit and watch bands all weekend.’ There’s just really good music on all the stages. We sort of tailor some of them to places where they’re at, but it’s pretty diverse,” Soltesz said.

Sunday’s schedule is comprised of a special gospel program presented by Allegheny Center Alliance Church. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., family friendly activities, as well as gospel music and worship, will be held in Allegheny Commons East Park. Then, from 6 to 8 p.m., there will be an evening session. Food trucks will be on site all day.

“Last year (Allegheny Center Alliance Church) had a great event … the weather was awesome for it and they had a great turnout amongst their congregation. This year, they were like, the hours that we’re doing this, other churches that we would like to involve are having their services, so can we come back from 6 to 8 Sunday evening and … have some more gospel music? So that’s what we’re going to do this year,” Soltesz said.

The festival is free all weekend, but $5 wristbands for those 21+ will be sold for access to alcoholic beverages. There will be outdoor bars. — sponsors Iron City Beer and Wigle Whiskey will have their products available.

Soltez also noted that the Northside Music Festival is a nonprofit event organized and run by volunteers.

“Last year when we did it, we basically broke even. We were able to get good payments out to all of the bands and that was appreciated by them. We hope to continue in that tradition,” he said.

The festival will also host an artists market Saturday afternoon — along with activities for kids — in Allegheny Commons Park from noon to 6 p.m.

“Anything goes, whatever we can do to make it fun. I want the best bands to play it, I want everyone to have fun, great food, great art at the artists’ market, and then to wrap it up Sunday with gospel music is just such a great package,” Soltesz said.

An Indiana County native, Soltesz fell in love with live music when he lived in Austin for a year. After moving to the Northside, he found a thriving live music community there and wanted to celebrate that.

“By doing this, it’s been great because I’ve got to meet and become friends with a lot of people who are in that scene, and by being someone who has absolutely no musical talents whatsoever, I can contribute in some way. I’m not making any money doing it, I’m doing it just for the love of it and because I think it’s a cool thing to do,” he said.

The full lineup for the weekend, as well as information about the bands and musicians who will be playing, can be found at northsidemusicfestival.com.

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