Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival Takes Over Pittsburgh's Highmark Stadium in September

The blues is an attitude. Something deep inside. A matter of the human condition that can't be named, only felt. It can find its way into any place. Piedmont. Chicago. Mississippi Delta. Texas. Memphis. And the blues can shape and shift into different forms. It can be soul. R&B. Zydeco. Hip-hop. Swamp. Gospel. Funk. Reggae. No matter what the region, no matter what the style, the blues takes the hurt and pain and confusion of the world, calls it out, and answers it with a sense of peace or redemption or joy. The blues tells us we're not alone in this world. And it tells us that we don't have to be.

As the soundtrack of struggle, the narrative of collective experience and the backbeat of community, the blues in all its different forms is a tradition that lives on with the Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival. Produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC) and Presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the fifth annual festival takes place September 14-15 at Highmark Stadium (510 W. Station Square Drive).

2022 ARTISTS

The 2022 Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival is more than just a series of concerts, it is a celebration-one that doesn't draw boundaries, but instead expands them, finding the communal spirit of the blues through all its different regions, forms and styles traditions and cultures.

Taking the Highmark stage will be reggae legends Steel Pulse. Blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland and singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster. Funk and R&B singer/guitarist Walter "Wolfman" Washington. Blues, soul, and roots songwriter Fantastic Negrito. In addition, be ready to groove to music coming Mississippi (Christone "Kingfish Ingram), from New Orleans (New Breed Brass Band), the Gullah culture of the southeastern Sea Islands (Ranky Tanky) and some of Pittsburgh's finest players (The Commonheart).

For the complete roster and schedule of the Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival on September 14-15 at Highmark Stadium, please check out the Daily lineup.

OUR BEST LITERATURE

Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Buddy Guy. Pianist Pine Top Smith, who lived in Pittsburgh for some time, and in 1928, became the first person to record what he coined boogie-woogie-not only changing the history of blues, but arguably what later would become rock and roll. Name just about any blues legend, and you'll find they all made the scene on Wylie Avenue over the decades. Each of them carried the burdens of their moments of history, bringing us together in the ongoing human struggle for freedom and dignity, as if to say it would be all right, that we could get through it together.

And the same remains true today. Says Janis Burley Wilson, President & CEO of the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, "The Highmark Blues & Heritage Festival is about hope, roots, and the connections that music creates across races, neighborhoods, and beliefs, and as the blues inspired August Wilson, it continues to inspire listeners today."

It's no wonder that August Wilson once said the blues is "the best literature we have." It was true then. And it's true now.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, starting at $30, are on sale now at https://blues.awaacc.org. Individual day passes as well as two-day passes are also available. For additional details and the complete festival line-up, please visit http://blues.awwaacc.org.