Lovelytheband headlines 2019 Fall Fest

While Bigelow Boulevard won’t be shut down full-time between Forbes and Fifth avenues for construction until Nov. 1, the street was closed Sunday for an afternoon-long celebration — Pitt Program Council’s annual Fall Fest. At the event, an audience of about 300 crowded close to the concert stage set up between the Cathedral of Learning and the William Pitt Union.

Eva Lin Feindt, PPC’s special events director, said she was glad students could take a break from studying to enjoy the free concert — headlined by indie pop band lovelytheband — and the other festival activities, which included tabling from PittServes and Mental Health Awareness Month.

“It’s always nice to be out here and have people doing a lot of stuff,” Feindt said. “To be able to take a break from midterms and all your responsibilities and spend a nice day outside with your friends eating food, listening to music and all of that.”

Many students, like first-year neuroscience major Malaz Sharief, were most excited for lovelytheband, which played a set that highlighted the hit 2017 single “broken.” Lovelytheband performed toward the end of the festival, which lasted from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

But the concert also featured performances by three other bands, including the Los Angeles-based duo Two Friends, Palm — a band provided by WPTS radio — and Quiet Hours, the student band that won the PPC’s “Pitt Factor” competition last week.

[See more pictures from Fall Fest.]

The four sophomore students that make up Quiet Hours — Evan Heming, Patrick Bobko, Gabe Field and Jared Deluccia — formed the band while living in Sutherland Hall last year. Several of the band’s original tracks can be heard on bandcamp, including “Detained in Venice” and “Calvin’s Bike,” two of the songs they performed Sunday.

Sharief said she was also looking forward to the other activities and resources offered at Fall Fest, which included food trucks and a dollar clothing sale.

“I think it’s a way for everyone on campus to just get into the fall weather and enjoy their time,” Sharief said.

Zach Kiesendahl, a sophomore communications major, said Two Friends’ “Big Bootie Mix” mixtape series was the “anthem” for his first year of college.

“I’ve never heard of lovelytheband until the beginning of this year, in all honesty,” Kiesendahl said.

Kiesendahl’s friends, juniors Emma Cochran and Shelby Smith, were familiar with lovelytheband’s single “broken,” though there were other reasons they were looking forward to Fall Fest, too.

“I’m excited to hear lovelytheband, but I was excited for the food trucks. I went to the grilled cheese one, that was really good,” Cochran, a rehab science major, said.

Kiesendahl, a Pathfinder, said Fall Fest is a good way for students to go out and do something on Pitt’s campus.

“[As Pathfinders,] we always share that it’s important to get involved in something and go out and do things throughout the year, because the more you do that, the more people you get to surround yourself with,” Kiesendahl said. “I think coming out to things like this is a way to meet new people and get your friends together.”