He’s from Pittsburgh where the green and the eatin’ is good.
Changin’ the game.
Spittin’ that flame.
His name?
It’s Wiz Khalifa man.
The superstar Pittsburgh rapper will headline the fifth annual Thrival Innovation + Music Festival, September 29-30 at the Carrie Furnaces.
“We’ve been talking about getting Wiz to headline for almost as long as Thrival has been a thing,” says Thrival Director, Dan Law. “This year, a lot of elements aligned to make this possible – and we think Wiz is a perfect headliner to celebrate our fifth year.”
Wiz will headline a night of the two-day festival while the other will be headlined by hip-hop artist Logic. Originally from Maryland, the Def Jam artist released this month his third proper studio album, Everybody, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. (The album was inspired by the Andy Weir short story, The Egg.)
Stage two will be headlined by Detroit electro-funk act GRiZ one evening and the LA-based DJ, Carnage the other.
The Thrival Innovation + Music Festival is an initiative of Ascender, Inc.—a Pittsburgh-based 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting early-stage startups, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Years one and two took place at the Bakery Square construction sites before moving to Hazelwood for 2015 and its present location last year.
Thrival headliners in years past have included The Chainsmokers (2016), Panic! at the Disco (2015), Moby (2014) and RJD2 (2013), but none have been as nearly as big as Wiz. On a related note, Thrival partnered with LiveNation for venue operations, talent buying, and marketing this year.
Other notable acts for 2017 include veteran Northern Irish indie rock trio Two Door Cinema Club, Atlantic Records electronic pop artist Kiiara, English indie rock band Circa Waves, and beatmaster extraordinaire (and Anderson .Paak collaborator) TOKiMONSTA, who first visited Pittsburgh in 2010 as part of the inaugural VIA Festival.
In total, 19 acts have been announced and more will be named in the coming months. Tickets to the two-day music festival go on sale Friday, May 19 at 10 a.m!
The music festival portion of Thrival is preceded September 27-28 by the innovation portion. This year’s theme, “Intelligence: Humans X Tech,” will “explore the relationship between humans and technology, and how it is rapidly changing the world around us at an unprecedented pace.”
