Have you heard?
The second annual VIA Music & New Media Festival, presented by VitaminWater, Wednesday, October 5 – Sunday, October 9 and 16, is proud to announce partnerships with over a dozen community organizations to offer programming in traditional and pop-up venues spanning Pittsburgh’s South Side, Oakland, Bloomfield, Garfield, Lawrenceville, and East Liberty neighborhoods.
In collaboration with the City of Pittsburgh/Office of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, East Liberty Development Inc., The Mosites Company, and the Wedgewood Group, VIA will cover an entire city block of Broad Street, centrally located in East Liberty, for their main festival days on Friday October 7 and Saturday October 8.
Transforming newly renovated buildings into an arts and nightlife district, with main performances on an outdoor stage, October 7/8 events showcase Broad Street’s location benefits, which include wide sidewalks, storefronts with open floor plans that flood with natural light, and ample parking. The corridor provides a variety of use for new business and considerable potential for real estate.
“This is going to be a great event, showcasing the Broad Street area of East Liberty,” said Anthony Pantoni, Associate at Colliers International | Pittsburgh. “The Wedgwood Group has generously provided indoor space for the festival at 6022 – 6024 Broad Street.”
VIA 2011 showcases a variety of venues and partnerships that speak to Pittsburgh’s past and future, beginning Wednesday October 5 with all-ages workshops from 4-7pm at Assemble, a new art and technology space on Penn Avenue in Garfield. Students from Carnegie Mellon University’s CODELab team up with MIT’s Media Lab to offer projects that explore tangible interaction and Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ supports a 16mm workshop by Ohio artists Bellows. VIA’s kickoff show at 9pm opens down the street in Lawrenceville’s ever- popular Brillobox, headlined by Trans Am and Brooklyn art collective, Thunder Horse Video.
Thursday October 6 begins in Oakland at Carnegie Melon University, with a performance and lecture at 6pm lead by seminal minimalist composer David Borden. Borden’s “The Moog Synthesizer Lecture: The Man I Knew and the Machine I Learned” is followed by the world premier of FRKWYS 7 Ensemble, an intimate performance featuring four up-and-coming electronic musicians in concert with Borden. This performance was made possible through the support of CMU’s Activities Board and School of Music in collaboration with NYC label RVNG Intl.
The Rex Theater, South Side, plays host after 8pm to VIA’s first big lineup of musicians and visual artists, featuring Battles, Four Tet, FaltyDL and the US premiere of acclaimed Italian visualists/programmers, Abstract Birds/Quayola, performing their custom visuals ‘Partitura’.
Festivities on Friday October 7 begin during Penn Avenue’s Unblurred, with a lecture/demo from industrial noise stalwarts Wolf Eyes at the newly renovated Mr Roboto Project. VIA’s main event at 7pm highlights 6022 Broad Street, with performances spanning art/performance mashups from Extreme Animals to young MPC hip-hop heavyweight araabMUZIK and new-world cumbia from Mexico’s Toy Selectah. Friday’s official afterparty is curated by the NYC label RVNG Intl. and features the internationally renowned DJ and founder of New York’s “Beats in Space” WNYU radio program, Tim Sweeney.
Saturday October 8 is VIA’s largest showcase – using multiple spaces along Broad Street and an outdoor stage for a day-long celebration of music, visual art, workshops, and installations starting at 4pm. In addition to main stage performances, events include CMU’s CODELab “Crank Orchestra” installation, video screenings curated by Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ artists in partnership with Vimeo, and a special selection of videos picked from the archives of the Carnegie Museum of Art by curators Tina Kukielski and Dan Byers and the Andy Warhol Museum by Director, Eric Shiner.
The inaugural Pittsburgh Vinyl Convention and Small Press Festival also join VIA on Saturday October 8, at 126 Sheridan Avenue, above the Family Dollar adjacent to Broad Street, merging three festivals into one.
Admission to the VIA Festival is not required to attend the vinyl and press festivals, which are all-ages, and begin at 9am.
October 8 includes satellite performances roving throughout East Liberty, re-framing city spaces through sound. Aaron Nemec’s mobile “BASS Rally” will tour parking lots and Matt Barton’s “Heal The World” sound frequency performance will make surprise appearances in locations off the beaten path.
VIA returns to East Liberty on October 16 for a wrap party with Cali’s boogie-funk ambassador Dam-Funk and locals ELQ (East Liberty Quarters), PTA (Pittsburgh Track Authority), and Smooth Tutors at the Shadow Lounge.
VIA welcomes this year’s Artist Partners, who directly support artists on the bill in order to make their performances in Pittsburgh possible. The Round Corner Cantina presents Toy Selectah on Friday October 7 while 720 Records presents Dam-Funk on Sunday October 16. Pittsburgh Filmmakers presents “Phenomena” curated by Gretchen Neidert and Marina Pfenning and the 16mm workshop and VJ performance by Bellows. The Brillobox presents Thunder Horse Video’s stage design and live visuals.
The 5-day VIA Festival brings together musicians and artists spanning 5 countries (UK, Italy, Mexico, Canada, USA) featuring hometown names alongside the internationally acclaimed. 40% of artists either
currently live, or have lived, in Pittsburgh, emphasizing VIA’s literal meaning of “by way of, or passing through” and goal to encourage Pittsburgh as a nexus for cutting-edge collaborations between music, art, and tech.
The lineup features a broad spectrum of sounds, from noise, rock/garage, pop, and new wave to hip- hop, disco, house, techno, funk, cumbia, and progressive electronic, held together by the goal to present what’s next in music among a smattering of pioneers: Battles. Four Tet, Underground Resistance, Trans Am, Peanut Butter Wolf, araabMUZIK, Dam-Funk, Austra, Zombi, Toy Selectah, Falty DL, Brenmar, Donato Dozzy, Extreme Animals, Light Asylum, Wolf Eyes, Tim Sweeney, Sutekh, Walls, Laurel Halo, Ford & Lopatin, Pink Skull, Blondes, Nuel, Protect-U, Raw Blow, Centipede E’est, ELQ, PTA, and Pure Hype round out the lineup.
Visual artists with backgrounds spanning film/video/animation to open source software development, interactivity, and game design, will perform live alongside musicians and present screenings, installations, and workshops. Abstract Birds/Quayola, Thunder Horse Video, Anton Marini, Aurora Halal, Rui Periera, Daniel Iglesia, Bellows, Di Ay Battad, Matt Wellins, A Bill Miller, Ben Tabas, CMU CODELab, Spencer Longo, Goat Helper, Matt Barton, CMOA/Warhol screenings, “Phenomena” curated by Gretchen Neidert & Marina Pfenning, “sl0ppy:sec0nds” curated by Ben Kinsley & Michelle Fried, Aaron Nemec, and Matt Sterling round out the lineup.