The streets of Millvale were brimming with people and alive with music Saturday.
It was the second and final day of the ninth Millvale Music Festival, which was expected to draw around 20,000 people for more than 350 musical acts on nearly three dozen stages throughout the borough — on streets, stages and inside and outside of businesses.
“This is my favorite part of the year, every year,” said Symington Reed, a guitarist from Millvale, who was performing at the festival for his second time on Butler Street, just off of Grant. He was playing solo, using a looper to build songs.
“This is a city full of artists and musicians,” Reed said. “It’s great to see so many of my neighbors making music for two days.”
Amy Partridge spent much of her childhood in Millvale — her parents owned a sternwheel paddleboat. Attached to what she affectionally calls “Mill Village,” she moved here, to Lincoln Avenue, from McCandless going on three years ago.
While her bad back kept her from roaming the stages, she was still enjoying the festival, with friends visiting.
“It’s prime time people watching from the front porch. I love to see Millvale flourishing,” she said. “The volunteers have put so much work into over 300 acts. I’m glad that Millvale gets to show off what it has to offer.”
Following performances Friday evening, the festival got underway with a classical stage at St. Nicholas Church, home of the famed Maxo Vanka murals.
The church was the first stop for Loren Schleiden, of O’Hara, and his son, Thomas, 6, who were attending the festival for the first time.
“Every year we think about going but every year something else comes up,” Schleiden said. Nothing came up this year, “Plus, Thomas is old enough to sit still.”
Like many, they weren’t sure where they would be going next.
“We want to see what all the options are,” Schleiden said. “It’s nice that there are so many options.”
It was also their first time seeing the murals that the church is famous for.
“It’s just amazing to have that space so full of sound. You’re surrounded by sound and art,” said Becky Gaugler, director of education and interpretation for The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. “It’s a great opportunity to bring new audiences to the murals and classical music fans to the area.”
Parking in Millvale can be challenging without an event drawing thousands of visitors and stages and vendors taking up some of the spaces. To help with that, off-site parking was available at the PPG Arena Melody Lots, with a free shuttle from ABC Transit.
Corey and Katie Blystone, of Penn Hills, felt pretty lucky to find a spot on Grant Avenue. It’s been a couple of years since they’d attended the festival — their 3-year-old daughter, Lindy, was with them Saturday.
“She really likes live music,” Katie Blystone said. “It’s hard to find places that have it in the afternoon.”
After having four bands perform on Friday, nine were lined up to play Saturday on the back patio at Harold’s Haunt, which Athena Flint owns along with Maude’s Paperwing Gallery upstairs. The bands were all local, with a variety of music styles, and queer-friendly artists.
“We have some amazing bands lined up,” they said.
The festival brings people to Millvale from across the U.S., and even some international visitors, too, Flint said. Every year, it gets a little bit bigger.
“It’s a rowdy but a very good kind of crowd,” they said. “I like the people who come. I like the energy it brings.”
Those in the area who discover Harold’s Haunt during the festival do come back, Flint said.
“The atmosphere in the bar during the music festival is a different atmosphere,” they said. “People come back to see what we are during normal, every day hours.”
Kellie Mason said her drive from Monaca in Beaver County to Millvale felt very long, full of stop signs along Route 65 and frequently changing speed limits. She’d been to the festival a few times when she lived in the city, but Saturday was her first time back since living in Florida for four years.
“I just wanted to come down and check out the music festival,” she said.
After visiting Maude’s, Mason didn’t a plan for where she was going next.
”Any kind of live music is music for me,” she said. “I don’t care what it is. I don’t even know one band that’s playing.”
Lifelong Millvale resident Katie Dembowski took over Cousins Lounge in 2020 after her father, Kevin Goetz Sr., died that year.
She had music inside and outside her place and food available on the street.
“This is such an amazing thing for our community. They do a great job to keep it organized,” Dembowski said. “The music is always fantastic and the crowd’s always great. It showcases how wonderful our community is.”