This Sunday, young people can visit Riverfront Park for a chance to get a punk rock makeover before joining a mosh pit, while also connecting  with housing, necessities and mentorship through life’s challenges.

Punx in the Park is back, and it’s bigger than ever before.

Salem’s home-grown combination of a punk music festival and youth resource fair expects to draw thousands for a day of music, food and booths offering makeovers, activities and support for youth ages 11-18. This year’s event will have offerings for adults and younger kids, too.

The event starts at 11 a.m., and goes until 6 p.m. Riverfront Park is located at 200 Water St. N.E.

Since its first festival in 2022, Punx in the Park has filled downtown Salem’s Marion Square Park. Last year’s event drew thousands, including over 500 youth who had access to free food, haircuts and connections to services.

“It was so big that the park couldn’t handle it,” said Jay Greenfield, program manager at Punx With Purpose.

The Salem nonprofit organizes the event, and earlier this year opened Stormie’s Place, a downtown resource center where young people can hang out, get meals and case management for health care and social services.

Extra space at Riverfront Park means more resources coming to Punx in the Park this year, said Greenfield. There will be over 50 booths aiming to support youth.

New additions include the nonprofit Punk Rock Saves Lives, which works to sign people up for the bone marrow donation registry, Simply Birthdays which brings homeless children in Salem gifts and cake on their birthdays, and others that can help youth find activities, health care and more.

There will also be booths for adults for the first time, Greenfield said, including the Center for Hope and Safety, Soaring Heights Recovery Homes and the Recovery Outreach Community Center.

Youth will be able to create their own punk look before joining the pit, with the free Build-A-Punk hair cut and styling stations. The booth is sponsored by Manic Panic, which Greenfield said has been iconic in the alternative scene since the 80s, who is sending free hair dyes, sprays and extensions.

With help from Blast Off Vintage, youth will be able to decorate their own “battle jackets,” or jean jackets with cutoff sleeves. They’ll have plenty of patches to choose from to add onto it.

“If you’re going to get your hair spiked and dyed blue, and then you get the battle jacket, you feel punk rock for the day,” Greenfield said.

The clothing closet will return, allowing youth to pick out new clothes donated by Hot Topic.

Youth will also get a free meal from a local food truck, plus a free coffee or milkshake. Food vendors this year will cook tacos, loaded baked potatoes, barbeque and more. 

Cherriots, which already offers free rides to people 18 and under, is offering free rides to anyone else attending Punx at the Park through its UMO app. The code, which activates Aug. 30, is SAMTD-LUBG-UV7F.

Through a survey, youth voted on what bands they wanted to see out of a list of about 80 options, Greenfield said.

The headliner, Bazooka Sharkz, is returning to Punx in the Park. The other four bands in the lineup are All Quiet, Me Grimlock!, Overthinking and Never Sunny.

The forecast shows temperatures in the 80s this weekend, but Greenfield said they’ve prepared for hot weather with three cooling tents, cooling towels and shaded areas to enjoy the music. Those looking to mosh should prepare to get wet.

“We also purchased a slew of those water sticks, the ones you can squirt people with,” Greenfield said, and laughed. “People can grab those and then go into the pit and go crazy.”

Greenfield said the rapid growth of the festival has been mostly thanks to word of mouth, and the hard work of the team of “Elder Punx” that work to make each year a success. He also credited the leadership of organizer James Kelley. 

He said that before the festival, the word “punk” may have had a negative connotation in the community. Now, it’s becoming an event that resources and sponsors are eager to get involved in as a magnet event for the underserved youth demographic. Greenfield said last year’s event brought visitors from 11 counties across three states.

“This whole event is being a voice for the voiceless, being the adults we needed as youth,” he said. “It speaks to how intensely loyal our audience is, because really the youth are what drive us to do this whole thing, as an outfit. And they’ve come in droves.”

CORRECTION: Punx in the Park goes until 6 p.m. this year, not 7:30 p.m. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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