Ska music has always had a niche following within western Mass, especially during the ’90s with students playing their own small ska shows in college dorms, underground DIY venues and locations such as Daddy-O’s in Springfield and Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton.

While this genre may have gotten less popular through the years, the first annual Pioneer Valley Ska Festival, presented by 413Ska, was held at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield last week, July 27, and it ran for over 10 hours with 20 bands on the bill and over 350 attendees.

The all-ages event included co-headliners Hub City Stompers and Pilfers. It was a meaningful evening for Pilfers, a New York-based band who made their debut performance in Westford at the New England Ska Festival in 1998 and and have since become a staple in the ska music world. “Events of this magnitude haven’t been executed since our first debut back in 1998 in the New England area,” said Pilfers vocalist Coolie Ranx.

A strong mix of local and touring artists made up the rest of the festival’s lineup.

Bands from the northeast and as far as Florida made the journey to perform at the inaugural fest, including Chilled Monkey Brains, Girth Control, Fuselaje, Sgt. Scag (aka Sgt. Scagnetti), Skamagotchi and So Many Dangers. Local bands featured included River City Rebels, Cuidado, The Agonizers, Futon Lasanga, No Detour, Threat Level Burgundy, The Valley Moonstompers Society, Brunt of It, Nick and The Adversaries and Teen Driver.

Eric Coles created 413Ska when he moved to the area during the COVID pandemic to make sure that shows for a more alternative audience keep occurring in the area, so folks don’t have to travel to locations such as Boston to see the artists or bands they love.

Coles said the event exceeded his expectations.

“We stayed on schedule which is always hard to do with these kinds of events. I had three great volunteers and the staff at Hawks & Reed were tremendous,” he said. “My favorite part was looking around at everyone and just seeing pure happiness. It was family-friendly but still had that excitement in the air that anything could happen. It also helped that so many bands and audience members stuck around, partied and talked to everyone. It felt really special.”

Though relatively dormant in recent years, the ska scene in western Mass is directly tied to local college radio culture. “There (were) a lot of college radio stations that really played an important role in just playing ska music. You had a lot of really great bands from Boston and Connecticut,” said Jed Dion, host of Talking Records, a podcast devoted to discussing the history, context and analysis of records. Western Mass, Dion said, “was just a really good in-between place for touring bands.”

One of the bands known for having a long history of performing in western Mass is Sgt. Scag, a Northeast ska/punk band whose music revolves around topics such as dysfunctional parenting and revenge fantasies.

Sgt. Scag took a break for 18 years after debuting in the late ’90s, reunited in 2018, and has been steady with performing since then.

“It’s always been a great music scene. I feel like it’s always been pretty warm to us. The travel is pretty easy and [there is] a supportive fan base that always keeps us coming back,” said Steve Lonergan, the lead singer of Sgt. Scag.

413Ska has a roster of events in the near future, including: the Money Savior Tour (four bands covering songs by Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and No Doubt) on Aug. 4 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Huthghi’s at The Nook in Westfield; Inspecter 7 with ¡Fuákata!, Butterbrain and Atlas & Oracle on Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. (also at Huthghi’s at The Nook); plus a Video Game Ska Digital Dance Party on Sept. 22 from 2 to 7 p.m. at Hawks & Reed.

UMass Amherst journalism student Paige Hanson is Arts & Features intern for the Gazette.