Reading, Pa. – The Reading Downtown Improvement District is bringing a little southern hospitality to tonight’s free Downtown Alive concert with Southern Culture On The Skids. The band will perform on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. on the 500 block of Penn Street.
The trio joins a star-studded lineup of other performers that have taken the stage this summer. Southern Culture On The Skids performs right off the heels of The Revolution, which attracted over 3,000 fans to center city in mid-August.
The 500 block of Penn Street will be closed off to vehicular traffic to create a festival atmosphere that will include food trucks and alcoholic beverage vendors. A “kid’s play zone” will also be set up to entertain the young ones with face painting, balloon sculpting, and other activities.
Southern Culture On The Skids has been spreading the rock and roll gospel since they formed in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1983. Guitarist/singer Rick Miller, drummer Dave Hartman and bassist/singer/heartbreaker Mary Huff “play a greasy mix of surf, rockabilly, R&B and country-fried garage with a side of psych,” according to their Facebook page.
The band has toured everywhere from the North Carolina Prison System to Mt. Fuji, Japan and deliver what Rolling Stone calls “a hell raising rock and roll party.”
Opening for the Sept.18 show will be Drew & The Blue, Reading’s very own popular surf/rockabilly trio.
The Downtown Alive outdoor concert season will wrap up on Saturday, Oct. 19 during the free block party that will kick off the Reading Royals hockey season. The party starts at 3 p.m. on the 700 block of Penn Street. Cracker will be the featured band with Talk Louder! as the opening act.
Berks County Community Foundation, which has been financially supporting the concert series since its inception in 2015, is providing major financial support from its Hawley and Myrtle Quier Fund. Berks County Convention Center Authority is another major sponsor. Other sponsors are GRCA, Reading Parking Authority, and DoubleTree by Hilton Reading. Additional sponsorships are available by contacting the Improvement District office at 610-376-6424.
More information on the concert series can be found at www.downtownalivereading.com.
About the Reading Downtown Improvement District
The Reading Downtown Improvement District is focused on creating a vital, productive and commercially active environment in downtown Reading. The Improvement District provides cleaning, security, and marketing services for a specially designated commercial district in the city, and also sponsors several events and activities throughout the year, including MidDay Cafes, Reading Holiday Parade, Downtown Alive free outdoor concert series, and Reading Fire + Ice Fest. The Improvement District continually strives to make downtown Reading a cleaner, safer and more inviting place to live, work and visit.
About Berks County Community Foundation
Berks County Community Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that serves as a civic leader for our region by developing, managing and distributing funds to meet existing and emerging community needs. More information is available at www.bccf.org.
