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Thrival Music Fest chief calls the Mahoning Valley home Rocking & thriving
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
The Thrival Music Festival is emerging as Pittsburgh’s first serious entry into the burgeoning field of multi-day rock fests.
Now in its third year, Thrival will be Friday and Sept. 26 on the site of a former steel mill in the city’s Hazelwood section. Headliners are Panic! At the Disco, Manchester Orchestra, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, Wale and Andrew McMahon.
It’s a key element of the Thrival Innovation and Music Festival, which takes place throughout the city Monday through Sept. 27, a series of events that spotlight the progress of local business innovators.
Thrival is presented by Thrill Mill, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs in software, health care and other ventures. Overseeing the music festival is Dan Law, vice president of business development for Thrill Mill.
Law lives in Pittsburgh but calls the Mahoning Valley his home.
He grew up in Dalton, a small town outside of Canton, and went to Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., where he played football.
While a sophomore at W&J, both of his parents were called to churches in the Youngstown area (Canfield Presbyterian Church and Poland Presbyterian Church). The new family home in Poland became his home base, and he spent two years working at Buffalo Wild Wings and GNC, both in Southern Park Mall in Boardman, after graduating from W&J. He then went to grad school at the University of Pittsburgh and has been living in that city for five years.
He talked about the music festival in this exchange:
Q. What is the goal of Thrival Music Festival in terms of ticket sales and its future? Will it go for bigger acts and blossom into the type of major rock festival that has been missing from the Pittsburgh area?
A. Thrival is only three years old and has been growing fast. We founded the festival to raise revenue for Thrill Mill, and also to raise Pittsburgh’s – and the region’s – national and international profile as it pertains to innovation and entrepreneurship.
When we hosted the first festival in 2013, we had a modest amount of sponsorship dollars, virtually no festival or production experience, a construction space to hold a concert, and one day. Thrival featured four bands: Frightened Rabbit, De La Soul, RJD2 and Formula 412. We coupled the concert with a handful of thought-talks and startup pitches that were open to the public.
Over 2,000 people showed up, and we were able to reinvest a modest amount of revenue back into the nonprofit. Altogether, we considered it a success.
Last year, we had 15 music acts over two days, headlined by Moby and Portugal. The Man, with Talib Kweli, Motion City Soundtrack, Phosphorescent, Mayer Hawthorne, Misterwives, Z-Trip and more. About 6,000 to 7,000 people attended.
Fast-forward to now, and we’re featuring 26 acts over two days, with 30 innovation events. We’re expecting between 12,000 and 15,000 attendees.
Moving forward, we’re only expecting this to grow. We’ll go for bigger acts as we get bigger, but we’re very conscious of not losing the authentic, community-focused element of Thrival. It’s what makes us unique.
Q. The location is unique. How does it play into the theme of Thrival?
A. The site is something truly special. It’s both physically impressive and culturally relevant. Our concert runs along a 1,300-foot-long abandoned steel mill on a 178-acre former brownfield. As the former site of J&L Steel and LTV Coke Works, many people’s parents and grandparents earned a living there. Now, the space has taken on a new identity, much like our region. It’s been given new life through new development plans and the leadership of many different organizations and individuals. In itself, it’s a case study of creative reuse.
Q. What do people from Youngstown need to know if they go to the music festival?
A. It’s a pretty simple trip down to Pittsburgh, but Hazelwood is most likely a new destination for many people. It lays along the Second Avenue corridor that runs parallel to the Monongahela River, about a 15-minute drive from downtown.
We’ll have two acres of on-site parking for $5 per day, plenty of directional signage, as well as hundreds of spaces available through the Hazelwood neighborhood, which is where the main gate is located. Street parking is mostly free. We’ll also be shuttling attendees from South Side Works and the Hot Metal Bridge parking lots along the tech corridor adjacent to the concert site.
Doors open at 2 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday. We recommend getting tickets online beforehand at thrivalfestival.com in order to avoid long lines at the box office.
Here’s an insider tip: Get here early and enjoy the craft-beer garden, live DJs, thought talks and a number of interactive art exhibits open during daylight hours.