There are, lawyer/music impresario Greg Seltzer admits, a lot of music festivals out there these days, representing a lot of different genres — Americana, folk, jazz, indie rock, pop… But there are none that represent what audiences will experience at Seltzer’s Philly Music Fest this month: Philadelphia.
“We’re breaking new ground on a genreless festival,” says Seltzer, a partner at BallardSpahr (by day), specializing in mergers and acquisitions. “Our genre is our geography. Whatever music is being made here is what’s in the festival.”
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That includes a night of female-led pop bands at Fallser Club in East Falls (October 18); indie rock superstars Dr. Dog (October 13 and 14), who sold out Ardmore Music Hall in under a minute; R&B performer Black Buttafly, opening for Mt. Joy frontman Matt Quinn at Underground Arts (October 16); and jazz drummer Nazir Ebo at Solar Myth (October 19).
This year’s festival will again raise money for charities, including to support music education. Seltzer — who volunteers his time, along with his wife and co-organizer, Jennifer — says the festival has raised about $100,000 a year for each of the last four years. They also pay the bands, and the venues, as part of what Seltzer has calculated is a $600,000 economic impact on the Philadelphia music community every year. “And that’s with no government funding at all and no corporate overlords,” he says.
Seltzer is self-described “music nerd” who wrote two books on 1960s rock and its relationship to historical events; as a lawyer he has also done work for the Newport Folk festival. His favorite musical genre is indie rock and jazz, which he listens to while working as a partner at Ballard Spahr law firm, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions — work he also loves. (The Citizen is a client of Seltzer.) He and Jenn launched Philly Music Fest in 2017, as a nonprofit; the couple are the event’s only staff members.
The first year, headliners included Strand of Oaks and Cayetana; they have since had Waxahatchee, Japanese Breakfast, Sun Ra Arkestra, Kurt Vile and Amos Lee, among 150 well- and lesser-known bands. Starting in 2018, Seltzer invited Dr. Dog, the 25-year-old indie rock band that started in Philly and which finally agreed to perform this year. (“They got an email from me every single year since 2018, and couldn’t have been more polite in declining the offer,” Seltzer says.)
All of the bands in all of the years have a connection to Philadelphia, from growing up here to forming here to moving here to performing here throughout the year. Seltzer has a list of over 300 local bands, continuously growing through crowd sourcing, and spends his nights and weekends scouting for the festival. The key for, as he puts it, a 49-year-old father of two with a day job, is catching the bands invited to open for national touring acts playing in Philly. “I love going and scouting the opening bands, which are lesser known and go on around 7:30 or 8,” he says. They even sell a t-shirt that says “never miss the opening band.”
For a music town whose music scene is still somehow under the radar, Philly Music Fest is a gift: Seltzer curates around 25 bands of the moment for those of us less versed in who’s out there making music. They pay the bands and venues generously. They donate money to launch the next generation of Philly-born bands.
“Our genre is our geography. Whatever music is being made here is what’s in the festival.” — Greg Seltzer
And for the last few years, they have also hosted Inside Hustle, a conference for local musicians to network with managers, agents, publicists, record labels, engineers and other industry pros. WXPN’s Bruce Warren will moderate three mini-panels this year at Rec Philly with musicians in various stages of their careers. The mission, Seltzer says, is to bolster Philly’s musical talent with the practical undergirding needed to support a vibrant scene the way cities like Austin, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle do.
One of this year’s performers, Catie Turner, will perform in a showcase of female-led pop bands on October 18 at the Fallser Club in East Falls, one of six venues in the area that will host concerts. She spends most of her time these days in Los Angeles, but as you might know from her music — Hometown, for example — she grew up in Langhorne, Bucks County, with Philly’s music scene as her backyard.
A pop musician formerly signed to Atlantic Records, Turner launched her career by auditioning for American Idol as a way to get over her stage fright. Now, she’s “so honored” to be returning home for the festival, to perform old and new songs for family and friends, and to see in person so many musicians she’s admired from afar.
“It’s so magnetic, all our venues, and all the talent that comes from Delco, Bucks, Philly proper, Jersey,” Turner says. “There’s magic in Philadelphia.”
Philly Music Fest, October 13-19, various venues and prices, more info here.
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