Outdoor ‘Happy Valley Music Series’ is coming to Tussey Mountain this summer. What to know

Tussey Mountain is set to host an outdoor Happy Valley Music Series this summer — and, if all goes according to plan, this might only be the beginning.

Three bands are already lined up for this summer’s monthly series, and a fourth is to be determined. The first concert will kick off 3 p.m. Sunday, June 23, with The Wailers, a reggae band formed by former members of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Opening for The Wailers will be Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root Uprooted Trio.

General admission is $40, and tickets go on sale March 29.

“It’s a return to big musical events at Tussey Mountain,” Fritz Smith, CEO of The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, which is sponsoring the series, said during a Thursday press conference. “It’s a great new live outdoor continuation of our mission to try to accentuate and highlight the great musical scene here in Happy Valley.”

Other confirmed acts include:

• July 28: Jim Messina and his band (Loggins and Messina) All Hits Tour

• Aug. 11: The Guess Who Alumni (all The Guess Who hits)

• September: TBD

Thanks to Rich Engler, a legendary manager/promoter from western Pennsylvania, Tussey Mountain once hosted national acts such as Willie Nelson, Def Leppard and The Beach Boys. Bob Dylan even performed a three-song encore during a sideways rain on April 27, 1997.

Those concerts went away after an ownership change at Tussey. Engler recalled how the owners at the time told him not to call back. “No, seriously,” Engler added Thursday. “They were almost mean.” But Symmetrical Investment Group, based in West Chester, purchased the property in 2021 — and managing partner Josh Lincoln, a 1998 Penn State grad who remembered that Dylan concert, was much more enthusiastic about a partnership when Engler called last year.

“We really want to have the concert series be a thing here in the summers,” Lincoln said Thursday. “I feel there is a demand for it because people want to be outside and have something to do, so that’s what we’re going to try to commit to.”

This summer’s first concert

Tickets to the June 23 concert, which features The Wailers, will go on sale 10 a.m. March 29. The public can purchase the tickets on iTickets.com or by calling 800-965-9324.

General admission is $40, but $50 tickets will also be made available. The prices do not include service charges.

Only 100 of the $50 tickets will be sold, Rich Engler said, and those ticket-holders will be granted admission to a cordoned-off section near the front of the outdoor stage. All attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets.

The concert’s capacity is somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000. Josh Lincoln said more people could comfortably fit in the venue, but parking and difficulty exiting put a lower cap on the crowd.

An interesting addition to the first concert will also be the display of about two dozen pieces of Bob Marley memorabilia. Engler is known for organizing Marley’s last concert before his death in 1980 — at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh — so he wanted to unveil photos and other memorabilia from that historic show.

Future of the series?

To understand the possible future of the series, you first have to glance at the past.

Tussey Mountain once hosted national acts but, before that, it needed to forge a reputation. It took time before acts like Crosby, Stills & Nash played there.

“Again, I didn’t start with those big shows,” Rich Engler said. “I had to build it. So we started with great shows, but I finally got to the epitome of those great shows — and that’s going to happen here.”

Josh Lincoln said he wants to help build this venue, and he’s hoping to revitalize the property little by little over the next few years. Tussey is already trying (or about to try) different things, such as renting ebikes, hosting more weddings and making its skatepark free.

Without Engler, Lincoln acknowledged he probably wouldn’t have been comfortable starting an outdoor concert series at this point. But when Engler called him — and Lincoln had already heard of him, due to his reputation — the managing partner didn’t need much convincing.

Engler said he called Tussey Mountain just about every year, to check in to see if anything had changed, if the venue would allow concerts. The former owners weren’t interested, but Engler never stopped trying.

“Why I was tenacious to get back here is because I loved it,” Engler said. “I loved it. Also, for selfish reasons, I’m a trout fisherman — a fly fisherman — so I love coming up here and fishing, and the venue is just great. It’s second to none, I’ll tell you.”