Bands at Pullman Park raise money for veteran suicide prevention
The Butler County Farm Show may have ended, but the local entertainment continued this weekend with the first-ever Secret Sounds Festival, two days of music featuring bands from around the county and the wider Pittsburgh area.
The list of acts that performed over the weekend covered the gauntlet of music — from punk rock to hip-hop to rhythm and blues. One of the last acts to take the stage Sunday night was Johnstown-based band The Platelets, which includes bass player and event co-organizer Ron Jezeskie.
“We always tell people we’re a rock band that jams and a jam band that rocks,” Jezeskie said.
All who attended contributed to a higher cause, as proceeds from the festival went directly to the nonprofit foundation A.J.’s Stop 22, which is dedicated to preventing veteran suicides.
The foundation is named after Andrew “A.J.” Smith, who served with the 56th Stryker Division in Iraq. Smith died by suicide in February 2016, and A.J.’s parents, Deb and Jim, formed the nonprofit in response to the tragedy. The “22” in the name stands for the average number of veterans who take their lives every day.
“We want to get the message out to everybody that no matter what’s going on in life, there is help available,” said Michele Thompson, A.J.’s cousin and a volunteer with A.J.’s Stop 22. “No matter what, individually, you may be struggling with ... you’re not alone. You can reach out.”
Secret Sounds evolved from last year’s “Backpackfest,” a music festival that raised money for the Butler Golden Tornado’s Weekend Backpack Program. Unfortunately, the host of Backpackfest, Chris Zidek, was unable to bring it back for a second year.
However, two of the musicians who performed at Backpackfest — Jezeski and Colby McFadden of the band Bombcat — decided the show must go on.
“All the bands got together, and we decided we still wanted to do something for Butler,” McFadden said. “We decided (to) have the bands do it for charity again, and do it for another good cause.”
Together with fellow musician Michael Garth, the three gathered local bands for a new music festival at Pullman Park. Many of those same bands played at Backpackfest last year, including The Platelets, Bombcat and Wavespy.
“It was kind of an organic process because of the the festival last year, and now we decided to do a new one this year,” Jezeski said.
Originally, like last year’s Backpackfest, the plan was for the performers to play outdoors, on a stage located in shallow center field. A thunderstorm Saturday scuttled those plans, and the musicians were forced to retreat to the second-floor concourse behind home plate.
McFadden said this was a blessing in disguise.
"I feel like the crowd was even more hyped in here,“ he said. ”Everybody was just super excited, even through the negative circumstance. Everyone seemed to have a good time.“
Indeed, despite near-perfect weather on day two, the bands decided to stay indoors again.
McFadden promised that the Secret Sounds Festival would become a yearly occurrence.
“This is definitely gonna be an annual thing,” McFadden said. “We will probably be coming back every year in August.”
