The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's quarterly Gallery Crawl comes with a new addition this Friday night. The crawl Friday evening from 5:30 to 9 comes with the usuall slew of free performances, exhibits and live music but this time around, from 8 pm to 1 am, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership will host the Project Pop Up: Night Market with 15 vendors of arts and crafts and food in the parking lot at 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.
Visitors can begin the Gallery Crawl anywhere—each venue has maps and information about all the events. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Darcy Kucenic says Katz Plaza on Penn Avenue at 7th Street will feature a band from Chicago—the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International—and local DJ Nate da Phat Barber.
Kucenic said there will also be art exhibit openings, dance performances and a hoop dance yoga class, among many other events making the Gallery Crawl a much bigger happening than when it started in 2004 in just a few venues. "It sort of morphed from there to include businesses, venues and buildings throughout the entire cultural district. And it's just a way to open up everything for free to have people come down to the district—many people who had never been here before—and just experience everything that we have."
This is Project Pop Up's first night market—a concept that's seen great success in other cities, according to the Downtown Partnership's Ida D'Errico.
