The Pittsburg Festival of the Arts is celebrating ten years! The festival started with three performances and has expanded to 11 and one film showing. The festival’s director and creator, Pittsburg State Director of Orchestras Raul Munguia, says that he started to give the universities foreign exchange students who were music majors and didn’t travel home over the summer something to do.

This year the festival has expanded to include a combination of PSU students, alumni, faculty, and community members. Such performances include the opening concert of the week-long series of events, the Summer Kick Jazz Concert inside the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts lobby on Monday, June 13 at 7 pm. And the Pittsburg Brass Quintet will perform at the Pittsburg Library Tuesday, June 14, at 2 pm.

In addition to this year’s festival is the Four Old Guys barbershop quartet, performing at Signet coffee Roasters on Wednesday afternoon at 2. This acoustic acapella harmony ensemble will perform various songs, from oldies like Tin Pan Alley, to Swing era ballads, to ’50s doo-wop, to 21st Century favorites, in a unique harmonic fashion known as Barbershop — a uniquely American creation.

This year’s special guest performance is quartet Ensemble Iberia who are scheduled to perform at the Bicknell on Wednesday, June 17 at 7 pm. The group, call Kansas City, Missouri home, play traditional instruments found in central and south America. Their performances include everything from guitar, vocal, and dance and are meant to transport the viewer to parts of the world they likely have never visited themselves.

All the Pittsburg Festival of the Arts events are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Events run from Monday, June 13 through Saturday, June 18.

Click this link to visit the festival’s Facebook page.