The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival

The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival is our biggest event of the year & the greatest opportunity to experience what our community is all about. This festival is the annual culmination of our ongoing mission to make art accessible, illuminate its value, & empower talented creatives to share their gifts. It’s also our invitation to neighbors, friends, performers, makers, & appreciators of art from all over the country to join us in that mission.

On the surface, NoCo Fest offers what you might expect from a high-energy event like this, but our approach & delivery set us apart in a few significant ways. We love to elevate artists with big talents & little experience. Starting out can be tough. Even after putting in the long hours of practice & hard work, the bar of entry for many events like this can be daunting. NoCo Fest exists to level the playing field. Instead of relying on an entry fee to hire event staff & pay bands, we raise money through grants & donations to make sure everyone is compensated fairly & equally. We also invite visual artists, artisans, & makers to display & sell their unique creations at a much lower table fee than other Pittsburgh art markets. We are unconcerned with the social media following & popularity of our participants, & have even encouraged our Afterschool students to apply. The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival has been the launch pad many of our makers needed in order to take their craft to the next level & market their brand to a wider audience. Some of the successful musicians in our community got their start playing at NoCo Fest & similar events.

Another piece we are especially intentional about is artistic diversity. We don’t hire bands exclusive to one genre—you will hear everything from alternative to metal, hip-hop to country, & more, all from the same stage. Likewise, NoCo Fest always features the most colorful & eclectic collection of art sold by a variety of vendors. We guarantee you will discover new music & see works of art you never imagined when you attend one of our festivals.

We simply cannot recommend coming to see The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival enough! This isn’t self-promotion; our ultimate goal is to promote others. There is untold beauty & infinite value in art. It has the power to connect us, to move us. We believe the ability to create & connect through the arts is one our greatest gifts from the One who created us.