Philly Music Fest

10/11/2026

PMF26 starts tomorrow (Monday) - get the FREE app to sort your show schedule, set times, read about the artists and venues - as well as the music education charities PMF supports and the local people and businesses that donate funds to make PMF a reality. There’s also a playlist to sample the bands playing PMF26 and a link to make a donation directly to the nonprofit PMF.

Thanks to the local Glaze Labs for building the app for no charge. Get it in the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/philly-music-fest/id6798939161.

10/10/2026

So cool to chat with Kevin from WHYY about the history of Philly Music Fest, our growth and future - highlighting some key shows from the past ten years, including Japanese Breakfast, Mt. Joy, Strand of Oaks, The Wonder Years and MANNEQUIN P***Y.

PMF26 kicks off on Monday with Gregory Alan Isakov. Full lineup: https://www.phillymusicfest.com.

https://whyy.org/episodes/greg-seltzer-of-philly-music-fest/

Preview the 2026 Philly Music Festival with cofounder Greg Seltzer.

10/09/2026

Not sure why anyone is interested in what I’m listening to, but WXPN is smarter (and cooler) than me. Thanks, friends - so appreciate your support of our little independent “festival.”

Euphoria Again Remember Sports Marietta - the band RJD2 Madi Diaz

Philly Music Fest is celebrating 10 years in 2026 and starts Monday with Gregory Alan Isakov and Caiola at Ardmore Music Hall. So for this week's Ears We Trust, we got a hold of PMF founder Greg Seltzer to see what he's been spinning lately. And what do you know: he's shouting out acts that are…

10/07/2026

Check out the annual Preview of Philly Music Fest by Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Four shows are SOLD OUT. There are 15 tickets left for RJD2 on 10/15, about 50 left for Sweet Pill, Wax Jaw and Remember Sports on 10/16.

Acts also include Sweet Pill, Immanuel Wilkins, and an expanded Inside Hustle.

09/15/2026

Supporting musicians is not limited to buying tickets, records and merch. Supporting musicians requires a village, an entire ecosystem - surrounding the musicians with advice, capital, connections, resources, exposure and independence. Philly has a great ecosystem, but we need more. More opportunity and more access. More people working in the Philly music industry to help musicians.

That’s what Inside Hustle is designed to provide - opportunity and access to managers, agents, radio, media, recording, distribution, booking, labels and sync. Swing through on October 10 (Saturday) from 10AM to 2PM at Drexel’s URBN Center (3501 Market Street). Networking, information, panels, collaboration space - opportunities and access to some of Philly’s brightest music industry talent and employers.

FREE with RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inside-hustle-philly-music-industry-networking-info-events-tickets-1999307698145?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2026/09/15/inside-hustle-music-business-philadelphia/

The Philly Music Fest offshoot creates a space for off-stage side hustles.

08/24/2026

The nonprofit Philly Music Fest is thrilled to announce two intimate shows on October 12 and 13. Gregory grew up in the Philly-area and started his musical journey in Philly bands and venues. He has reached incredible heights and we are so delighted to welcome Gregory and his band back to Philly, in some ways - giving back to a nonprofit that supports music education for kids and independent artists and venues.

Tickets onsale on Wednesday, August 26 at 12PM (Eastern). Presale on Tuesday, August 25 at 10AM (code is CAVES).

This year's mystery guest was born in South Africa and is now based in Colorado. But the artist who will headline two shows at Ardmore Music Hall has deep Philly ties.

08/17/2026

A few very Philly shows coming up at the Mann. Obviously, the Philly Pops, but Gregory Alan Isakov and Boyz II Men both have Philly roots and while Jerry and the Dead may not be from Philly, 50+ shows at the Spectrum is meaningful connectivity.

Philly Pops return to Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts this month for a special series celebrating the magic of live orchestral music across genres. From folk to rock to R&B, each performance pairs acclaimed artists with the full Philly Pops orchestra for unforgettable new interpretations of their music.

Gregory Alan Isakov BoyzIIMen

08/11/2026

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a mathcore band formed in 1997 in Morris Plains, New Jersey by guitarist Ben Weinman, whose relentless technicality and no rules approach to heavy music made them nearly impossible to imitate. They got their start on the New Jersey hardcore circuit, cutting their teeth through constant lineup shifts before signing to Relapse Records and releasing their genre defining debut in 1999.

Dissonant riffs, odd time signatures, and chaos calculated down to the beat, all delivered with a live show built on total physical abandon. Music made by a band that treats a song structure as something to be dismantled.

Their debut Calculating Infinity dropped in 1999 and became a cornerstone of modern heavy music, and they kept pushing boundaries through Miss Machine, Ire Works, Option Paralysis, and 2016’s Dissociation before calling it quits in 2017. They reunited in 2023 with original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis for a run of shows celebrating Calculating Infinity’s legacy, and this fall marks the final stretch of that reunion.

Philly’s been part of that legacy from the jump, a stone’s throw from where the band cut its teeth in the same DIY scene that shaped this city’s own hardcore roots. Bringing the final chapter of this reunion to Underground Arts, one of Philadelphia’s essential rooms for heavy music, puts it exactly where it belongs.

🎶 Start with “43% Burnt,” off Calculating Infinity, out now on all platforms.

🎟️ Catch The Dillinger Escape Plan live at PMF on October 15th at Underground Arts.

📲 Follow THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and don’t miss it.

08/06/2026

RJD2 is the stage name of Ramble Jon Krohn, a Philadelphia based producer, DJ, and multi instrumentalist whose two and a half decades in music have made him nearly impossible to pin down. He got his start DJing in Columbus, Ohio in 1993, cutting his teeth with the crew Megahertz before catching the ear of Definitive Jux founder El P and signing to the label in 2002.

Crate dug samples, cinematic beats, and hooks that swing from underground hip hop to soul to indie rock without ever settling into one lane. Music made by someone who treats genre as a suggestion.

His solo debut Deadringer dropped in 2002 to critical acclaim, and he’s kept moving ever since, from the sample heavy soul of Since We Last Spoke to the sample free, self sung The Third Hand to his most recent work as a longtime fixture of the Philly scene he now calls home.

🎶 Start with “Ghostwriter,” off Deadringer, out now on all platforms.
🎟️ Catch RJD2 live at PMF on October 15th at MilkBoy.
📲 Follow and don’t miss it.

08/04/2026

Sweet Pill are the technical, hard hitting side of Philly’s emo revival, born out of a college project and built into one of the scene’s most exciting live acts. Formed in 2018 by vocalist Zayna Youssef and guitarist Jayce Williams as a senior project at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, the band, rounded out by Sean McCall (guitar, vocals), Ryan Cullen (bass, vocals), and Chris Kearney (drums), relocated to Philadelphia and played their first show as a full lineup at FDR Skatepark in 2021.

Eruptive hooks, technical guitar work, and vocals that swing from a whisper to a scream. Emo with the edges of pop and hardcore, built for a room that wants to feel something loudly.

They signed to Topshelf Records and released their debut LP Where the Heart Is in 2022, and now return with their sophomore album Still There’s A Glow, out via Hopeless Records.

🎶 Start with “Blood,” off Where the Heart Is, out now on all platforms.
🎟️ Catch Sweet Pill live at PMF on October 16th at Underground Arts.
📲 Follow Killer and don’t miss it.