Ann Arbor Summer Festival: Squonk: Brouhaha

Start: Friday, June 20, 2025 5:45PM
End: Friday, June 20, 2025 6:15PM

Friday, June 20 at 5:45PM & 8:00PM
Saturday, June 21 at 5:45PM & 8:00PM
Sunday, June 22 at 4:15PM & 6:45PM

Brouhaha is an immersive outdoor spectacle bursting with rollicking music, dazzling imagery, and the thrill of audience participation! At the center of this riotous romp is the Squonkcordion, an enormous musical instrument powered by behemoth bellows topped with towering tuba bells. At the peak of the performance, Squonk invites the audience to play this foghorn organ, welcoming them to experience the joy of a brass band and the fireworks of community. The show ends with a 30-foot head made of brilliantly colored banners, comically blinking its eyes and shooting smoke out of its ears.

Throughout this visual extravaganza, Squonk’s musicians add driving rhythms, vibrant keyboards, wild winds, and hypnotic guitar riffs to the Squonkcordion’s rich and brassy sound. A raucous fusion of styles, Squonk’s music ranges from propulsive and exhilarating to celebratory and majestic. Critics have praised Squonk as  “Flamboyant! Dreamy!” (Pittsburgh City Paper) and  “Playful! Imaginative! Fun and outlandish!” (Pittsburgh Quarterly). 

Squonk creates boisterous outdoor spectacles by fusing fantastical visual design, playful staging, and high-energy original music. Witty and whimsical, Squonk’s free performances bring audiences together for a joyful celebration of humankind and our peculiar world.

Since their first big show in a Pittsburgh junkyard, Squonk Co-Artistic Directors Jackie Dempsey and Steve O’Hearn have led a group of musicians, artists, designers, and other creatives to produce shows with big visual and musical impact. Squonk’s productions have taken them to Off-Broadway, Broadway, America’s Got Talent, Europe, Asia and all over the United States. They have released 10 albums, a blend of styles propelled by driving rhythms and hypnotic riffs.

Brouhaha is co-presented with the Ann Arbor District Library

Run time is approximately 30 minutes.