How music became such a centerpiece of Pig Out in the Park

During the late 1970s, Bill Burke was a first-hand witness to two things: the ever-constant deaths of attempted music festivals in Spokane, and the rise of festivals in other markets across the country.

In fact, Burke worked as a consultant for community revitalization and economic development, resulting in being flown around the United States for this sole purpose. The job often entailed building upon local economies and cultures via events like music and art festivals.

“All these historic downtowns have music festivals and all kinds of entertainment, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Gosh, why don’t we have something like that in Spokane?’ ” Burke said. “It always came back to ‘how do you pay for it?’”

While traveling back home to the Lilac City, Burke pondered how he could work this magic in Spokane, the same way he had been doing in towns and cities from here to the East Coast and back. A few requirements would come to his mind; for one, the event had to be free.

“At that point we were paying, what, $7, $8, $10 for a ticket?” Burke said. “Now today, hell, you have to mortgage your home just to see a show.”

Second, music, food and beverages had to work in unison. To this day, vendor fees and beverage/alcohol sales (alongside sponsorships) are how the event that would become known as Pig Out in the Park is paid for.

On the sonic side of things, Burke had taken up the bass and guitar during Beatlemania and the Beach Boys boom, resulting in a deep appreciation for good music and the sharing of it. He also knew just how important music would be to setting the specific tone and atmosphere that Pig Out in the Park fosters every Labor Day weekend.

“I see people dancing all over the place and little kids jumping around and smiling and stuff,” Burke said. “It creates a not only a customer-rich environment, but a wonderful environment that you can just go and have fun and not have to worry about politics and all the other stuff that’s going on in the world.”

Initially, Burke found a small 4-foot-8 stage leftover from Expo ‘74 and borrowed it from Riverfront Park. Before you know it, Pig Out in the Park was up to multiple stages and even booking musicians from outside the region – in recent history Coolio, as well as Tone Loc, during one Friday evening’s festivities.

For decades, hundreds of artists have been applying to play Pig Out annually. This year, more than 300 bands and musicians applied online, and Burke receives phone calls from those wishing to play the event nearly every day.

Many of these artists are local, and Burke tends to concentrate on those within the Spokane scene, but he also gets a plethora of applications from Seattle and Portland, all the way to Alabama and Tennessee. Genres range from acoustic and folk to heavy metal and everything in between, and out of the hundreds of applicants, only 88 made the cut.

“Really, the trick is what can you find locally, regionally and nationally that will fit,” Burke said. “It comes down to who’s available, who’s in the area, who’s touring here that I can pick up?”

Despite the many challenges that producing the annual event entails, including sorting through every single music application to making sure the event cost of over a half-million dollars is properly paid for, Burke remains ecstatic and grateful to witness Pig Out in the Park grow and remain a beloved Spokane tradition for many.

“The trick, like I said, was how do you pay for it? And make it credible and safe and real?” Burke said. “And I think we’ve achieved that.”