Musicians and Community Come Together For Two Days of Performances

By Lauren Stauffer

Photos By Ashlee Green and Lauren Stauffer

By the numbers, Deutschtown Music Festival’s 6th annual event is currently the largest music festival in Pittsburgh. 365 bands performed at 40 stages in 21 hours for an estimated 25,000 festival goers in Deutschtown, East Deutschtown, Spring Garden, Nova Place, and Allegheny West this past weekend. There were over 30 food vendors, two dozen local artists in the market, and many others who came to be part of the performances in their own way like Ice Creations live ice carving.

By the end of the weekend, the most important number to the organizers, volunteers, and neighbors living in the festival zone is “0.” With a commitment to being a zero waste event, Deutschtown Music Festival diverted 84% of material from landfill with the help of Pennsylvania Resources Council’s Zero Waste team in 2017. Over the two day event, the Zero Waste team managed the collection sites for recycling, composting, and waste to make sure items were being diverted properly.

In addition, a volunteer group called Bags n’ Blocks came out during the event and post-event on Sunday morning to help make sure the streets and parks used were free of litter. Resident Lukas Bagshaw began the group this year in an effort to coordinate regular routines of cleaning blocks in Northside neighborhoods.

“We’re really proud of the work we do with Zero Waste Pennsylvania and volunteers each year. It’s like we were never here,” said Cody Walters, co-founder of Deutschtown Music Festival. “As a Deutschtown resident, I can say it’s cleaner [after the festival] than any other day of the year.”

On the Scene! Guests and neighbors at the Festival

Once a year, Deutschtown and nearby neighborhoods transform into an explosion of live performances, local artists, street food and fair like activities over a 72 hour period. See who came to be seen.