Arts on the Allegheny presents free Blues Traveler concert Saturday in Kittanning

Arts on the Allegheny will present Blues Traveler for a free concert at the Kittanning Riverfront Park on Saturday.

The free concert is final show for the Arts on the Allegheny summer series. The nonprofit offers arts and entertainment at the John P. Murtha Amphitheater in Kittanning’s Riverfront Park.

A band formed in Pittsburgh, the Bindley Hardware Company will open the show, which starts at 7 p.m.

Over the years, the free concert series has brought in a slew of national and local recording artists, among them Eddie Money, Los Lobos, The Clarks, JJ Grey and Gaelic Storm.

Blues Traveler is touring the country in support of their new album “Traveler’s Blues.” It’s a collection of re-imagined and re-charged classics from “The American Blues Songbook,” according to the band’s website.

“We try to have national acts,” said Mary Ann Valasek, chairwoman of Arts on the Allegheny.

What’s personally interesting to Valasek about Blues Traveler is that her daughter saw the band at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2019, and now here they are playing in Valasek’s backyard.

Arts on the Allegheny pick their bands by listening to music on radio stations such as WYEP, brainstorming and talking to residents, Valasek said.

“We think about what we like and what we think other people will like,” she said.

A Grammy award-winning and long-running band like Blues Traveler offers “a mass appeal for a lot of people on lots of levels,” Valasek said.

She expects the concert to attract about 7,000 people from the region and surrounding states.

Valasek said people will start setting up their chairs arriving at the riverfront park as early as 8 a.m.

The event will also feature vendors and raffles, she said. Dogs are welcome.

There are three hotels in the Kittanning area, Valasek said, and they usually are booked up for the large concerts.

Parking meters will not be enforced in Kittanning on Saturday, she noted.

The shows are a major source of tourism and promote the upper Allegheny River and the towns along the waterway.

“Arts on the Allegheny is an amazing organization,” said Mike Bruno, director of Experience Armstrong Inc./Armstrong County Tourism.

“Mary Ann continues to amaze me with her ability, not only to get big-name acts to come to Armstrong County but to offer the concerts for free at an amazing venue.”