34th Annual
South Hills School of Business & Technology
2023 Summer Music Picnic Series

Heat up your summer with live music, and family-friendly fun! Join us every Sunday, June 4 - August 27, from 4-7:30 PM! South Hills School of Business & Technology has been offering high-quality career training in Central Pennsylvania since 1970, and we're excited to bring back our long-running concert series to the State College community!

The South Hills School Music Picnic Story

For over 33 years the South Hills School of Business & Technology’s annual music picnic concert series has been a standard point of destination for local music lovers on Sunday evenings. The 12 concert series feature’s local bands and picnic food options as it continues the tradition of great multi- generational, family friendly, community fun.

The first Music Picnic was held in the summer of 1989, just after the South Hills School of Business and Technology moved into their new home on 480 Waupelani Drive on the southwestern edge of the borough of State College. Owners Paul and Maralyn Mazza designed the new property with a large grassy backyard to hold various school events. One of the ideas Paul and Marilyn wanted to re-create for the State College community came from memories from the past growing up and raising a family in State College. The community event that touched them in their earlier years and gave them a warm feeling of community during that time in the mid-50s was community sing-a-longs.

A community sing along was the creation of Hum Fishburne and Frank Gallo. These two Penn State professors were great friends and served as chairman of the PSU music department and Director of the PSU glee club and Choral Society respectively. They teamed up to host many community sing-alongs throughout the late 1940s and 1950s at the Schwab Auditorium on the Penn State campus.

Upon completion of their new 25,000 square-foot building in 1989, Paul and Maralyn decided to plan summer events to try to re-create those community, family friendly events that they so fondly remembered from decades before. They decided that their creation would be called a Music Picnic—a free outdoor concert every Sunday evening during the summer where young families and older residents alike could gather, meet, and enjoy the music of local musicians. Thirty three years later, South Hills School continues to treat the community of State College and its surrounding environs to that same cozy, locally flavored event series live each Sunday evening from the Tom Mazza Memorial Band Shell. Each year the Music Picnic series features a full schedule of 12 bands beginning on the first Sunday of June and ending on the last Sunday of August. The picnic always features penny a glass lemonade in deference to its nostalgic roots and there is always some sort of a food option. Sometimes hot dogs and chips and sometimes a food truck is invited to join in the fun and provide new picnic food choices.

The Music Picnic schedule will include a variety of genres of music from Jazz and Blues to Big Band, Country, Folk, and Soft Rock.
Plan to come join us when you can!!!