Starting this Friday night and lasting until Sunday evening, The Fire (412 W. Girard Avenue) will be holding its 3rd annual Leithgow Festival. The festival will span three days and nights and features more than 25 different musical acts performing an eclectic array of music ranging from punk to funk to hip hop and reggae.

Sponsored by a number of local businesses including The Spirit Newspaper, Philadelphia Brewing Company, Trios Trattoria and Las Cazuelas, this will be the first year that Leithgow Festival will be held in September. For the past two years the event had been held in October but according to promoter and organizer Derek Dorsey issues with the weather created a less than ideal situation for the outdoor portion of the festival. This prompted organizers with the idea to push the festival up a few weeks. Performances on Friday and Saturday nights will be indoors and age restricted to those over 21. Admission Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday is open to all ages.

“We want Saturday afternoon to be family friendly,” said Dorsey with regards to the free outdoor all-ages portion of the festival.

“I’ve never seen so many strollers outside The Fire,” Dorsey said after noting the success of previous Leithgow Festivals and the venue’s spring Sundrop Festival held over Memorial Day weekend. “A lot of young parents are able to bring their kids to see bands they like that would normally play an age restricted event.”

Along with the music, Saturday afternoon’s festivities will feature tables and vendors from around the area selling arts, crafts and goods, as well as family activities such as pumpkin carving.

The festival starts Friday night at 9 PM with three acts: Leana Song, Sugar Tongue Slim and Kid Haney. Kid Haney, whose real name is Chris McKenna, will be making his Philadelphia premiere. McKenna is a singer-songwriter act who finds his namesake in his great-great-grandfather, George “Kid Haney” Hesser. Hesser was born September 26, 1888, 126 years to the day before McKenna’s first show.

As if that were not coincidence enough, Hesser lived and grew up at 1017 Leithgow Street. Hesser was an acclaimed boxer at the Cambria Gym in Kensington and like many of his time was born to immigrants. Now, McKenna will perform one block and 126 years away from the very place the actual Kid Haney grew up.

“Somehow, from a bunch of poor Irish, Italian, and German immigrants who came here over 150 years ago, I exist, and I’ve had a pretty great life so far. I feel lucky, and I’m indebted to the hard work of my ancestors who lived in the River Wards,” said McKenna.

McKenna is from Narberth and spent time in Philadelphia working as a math teacher. Since then he has bounced around the northeast corner of the country, splitting time between Maine, Brooklyn and Pennsylvania. He is currently working on releasing a collection of 88 songs that he wrote earlier this year over the course of 88 days.

Headlining Saturday afternoon is I Yahn I Arkestra, a group that has been based out of Fishtown for close to 20 years. Taking cues from renowned jazz bandleader Sun Ra, the group has taken to calling themselves not a band, but an “arkestra,” an intentional change to the spelling of “orchestra.”

The arkestra moved to Fishtown from Old City in 1996 and made their debut performance at the Betsy Ross house as a part of the first ever Fringe Fest. IYIA plays a mixture of reggae and dub and is as they call it, “music with a message.” Six members make up the group and they have just released a new album, From Shakamaxon. Derek Shawn (known as Ras Jah D), the band’s leader, says the album was recorded “in homage to the original native American village and place of tribal council that resided along these banks and to the area that fuels our creativity.”

Along with IYIA, Saturday afternoon will see eight other performances including Fishtown Beats, whose real name is Colin Dooley. Dooley has been in Fishtown for several years making hip-hop beats and working with rappers to produce music.

“I’ve lived in Fishtown for a couple of years and have really enjoyed it, as well as the River Ward community in general,” said Dooley.

Saturday evening’s performance will be the premier of the Songwriter Series at The Fire, with performances on every Saturday night through October that will showcase several local artists. The premier event features Kim Edwards, Anjuli Josephine and Angel Snow performing on the indoor stage.

The Songwriter Series begins at 7 PM and will be followed by an evening of hip-hop beginning at 9 PM. This segment of the event is 21+ and comes with a $10 admission fee. Four groups will perform including Reef The Lost Cauze, Mic Stewart, Blacastan and Kuf Knotz.

Sunday has two performances, the first being three indie/punk rock acts, Bad Heat, Picture Perfect and Nobody Yet. This show will begin at 4 PM and cost for admission is $10. It will be followed at 8 PM by the final performance of the festival in five acts, Bok Nero & Bounceboyz, Matt Ford, Robbie Casablanca and Calogero GNVRLY. The admission price for this show is $8.

Leithgow Festival is the third and final music festival of the year put on by The Fire. The neighborhood cornerstone also organizes the Northern Liberties Winter Music Festival, held every February and just celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, as well as the Sundrop Festival, which is held on Memorial Day weekend. The focus of these festivals is to help promote music and creative arts in Fishtown/Northern Liberties/Kensington while also supporting local businesses and artists.

Dorsey has a very simple, but profound, vision for Leithgow Festival, “I wanted to embrace creativity and grow it within the community,” Dorsey said.

The first performance of Leithgow Festival will begin at 9 PM on Fri., September 26 at The Fire. It will continue outdoors on Sat., September 27 at 2PM, before moving inside at 7 PM. The festival will conclude Sun., September 28 with two indoor shows starting at 4 PM and 8PM respectively.