Parrot Heads will have a place to dock at Iron City Brewing in time for Buffett tribute concert

Final preparations are underway at East Deer’s Pittsburgh Brewing Co. as a summer concert series kicks off next week.

Crews will have installed a temporary boat dock behind the brewery before a Jimmy Buffett tribute band takes the stage June 29, said Todd Zwicker, Pittsburgh Brewing Co. president.

“I work here, but anybody who would come here will be pretty impressed,” Zwicker said. “It’s a really good vibe, a really good feel.”

Crews have spent the past couple of weeks clearing the riverfront portion of the brewery’s property to make way for the docks, which will be temporary this summer. A permanent dock will be installed by next summer.

Zwicker didn’t have an estimate of how big the temporary dock will be, nor how many boats it could handle; but did say he wouldn’t be surprised if there were upward of 100 boats latched on.

Three concerts are scheduled to kick off the brewery’s inaugural concert series this year. “Changes in Latitude,” a Jimmy Buffett tribute band, takes the stage June 29. Zwicker said that event will attract about 2,500 people.

He said the brewery has held similar-sized events in the past, just not yet in the back portion of the property. More than 2,000 people attended a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the brewery earlier this year.

“It should be right in our wheelhouse,” Zwicker said.

Led Zeppelin tribute band Zoso, and The Soft Parade, a Doors tribute band, will perform at the brewery’s amphitheater July 6. That event also will feature a benefit for local police dog units at 2 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to six local police departments.

Country music star Cole Swindell headlines the series with a concert Sept. 1. That concert could attract nearly 7,000 people, Zwicker said.

Zwicker said the brewery has roughly 3,000 parking spaces available on its property.

While he’s looking forward to this year’s concert series, the best is yet to come, Zwicker said.

“We are really going to start hitting our stride in 2025 and 2026,” Zwicker said. “Seeing this property and the opportunity here, I just have a gut feeling we’ll get the really big shows, if that’s what we want to do. We’ll be ready for it.”