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WILKES-BARRE — The summer music festival season has a number of high-profile national options for Northeastern Pennsylvania music fans to consider, as well as local offerings like Susquehanna Breakdown and The Peach Music Festival. Though if area music aficionados dig a little deeper, they’ll find a budding summer concert series growing in their backyard — or rather, the parking lot behind Curry Donuts on South Pennsylvania Ave.
“I made a lot of friendships after going to the first show,” said West Pittston resident Kierstin Frank. “I don’t know how they decided to do this, one day they were just like, ‘hey, let’s have a show here,’ and they just did it and I think that’s really cool they just made it happen.”
Frank has the gist of the story, but there’s more to it. Athena Rittenhouse, whose family has owned the doughnut shop since it opened in 1979, said the idea came from a lack of all-ages venues in Wilkes-Barre.
“We were actually just sitting at Curry one night just discussing doing something different for the younger generation, so we thought why not do a show,” Rittenhouse said. “We were going to do a small one inside that night acoustically but my parents were out of town, so we decided to wait until they came back and it became what it was.”
What it became was a July 25, 2014 show that expanded into a summer series in 2015. This year’s Curry show series began May 27 with the lot’s first all metal bill featuring local bands Vulturepeak, Bloodeagle, Lionshred and Foul Taste. The events, which occur on the last Friday of the month, usually feature all local acts, although organizer and Curry Donuts employee Cody Novitski said they’ve brought in bands like New York’s Space Cadet.
“If things get too big we don’t really know what to do with that yet,” Novitski said. “We’re still pretty early into it.”
Novitski said the strategy is working. Their focus on staying manageable (the largest crowd they’ve ever had was around 150 people) and their “no drugs, alcohol or violence” rules have helped keep the shows on the straight-and-narrow; they’ve only had one complaint, which was remedied when speakers were aimed away from The Heights neighborhood.
Pennsylvania Avenue Curry Donuts owner Ann Rittenhouse agreed to the shows proposed by her daughter and Novitski because she thinks they provide a safe place for young locals to go — and a space for music that doesn’t have an age restriction.
“We were excited because it’s something for the kids to do, somewhere for them to go,” Ann said. “I think it’s basically just someplace for kids to hang out and enjoy the music, especially the younger ones because they can’t get into the bars.”
Frank was underage when she attended the first Curry show, but the 22-year-old West Pittston resident’s ability to enter other local venues hasn’t detracted from her appreciation for parking lot performances.
“I think it’s a really good atmosphere,” Frank said. “It’s nice to just relax and hang outside, I mean, everywhere around here is just a bar, so I think it’s more inclusive to have shows like this where anyone can show up and have a good time.”
The next Curry summer show is 7 p.m. June 24 and features bands Hymn, Hold On Caulfield (New York), Whittled Down (Long Island) and The Menagerie (Kentucky). For more information, call Curry Donuts at 570-824-7424.
