While the impending 2011 VIA Music and New Media Festival is bristling with the kilowatts of hype generated over the past year, the first iteration of the festival debuted in Pittsburgh in October 2010 after only four months of planning by the event's organizers and little or no regional precedent.

The result was the cultural equivalent of a flash bang.

For three days last fall, the folks behind VIA managed to transform a patchwork of venues focused in Lawrenceville into a world-class exhibition of cutting-edge electronica, alternative hip-hop, avant-garde indie rock and digital media art installations, complemented by workshops held at Carnegie Mellon discussing all of the above.

This wasn't an event held in the middle of a field to optimize attendance or ticket sales. The festival was a model of innovation in both its planning and execution, lovingly integrated in the city proper, making VIA a Pittsburgh product through and through.

"VIA started with the festival," said organizer Lauren Goshinski, who works as the marketing manager for CMU's Museum of Art. "We're trying to redefine the festival, how it's put together, who does it, how it's done, the feel of it. ... We didn't pre-meditate [the 2010 event model]. We knew what felt right, and what we were going for ... looking at it closer, there was/is really nothing like it in the region, or the country."

The event not only brought in internationally esteemed musicians and digital media artists like Matthew Dear and the Kokoromi Collective, but also gave the spotlight to some of the best and brightest in Pittsburgh's fertile music and arts scene. Local underground electronic and hip-hop acts like Gangwish, Ekofield, Majeure and Shindiggaz performed on the festival's various stages while Pittsburgh-based digital visualization artists like Tom McConnell and Jen Inman (present at this year's VIA festival working together as Pure Hype) and Jesse England provided spaced out backdrops of hallucinogenic light and sound.

"At first, I was a spectator, in awe and shock that this kind of event was happening in Pittsburgh," said Andres Ortiz Ferrari, otherwise known as Discuss and one half of the electronic duo Ekofield. "As a performer, I was amazed to be able to hear my music through such a booming sound system. The people of VIA definitely gave me a sense of worth and reassured me that the music I was working on was quality."

"We want [VIA] to establish Pittsburgh as a nexus for arts music and technology to intersect, and the festival is the biggest way possible to do that," said Ms. Goshinski. "It's bringing local things to the surface, and it's attracting international artists and international attention so everyone can mix together and have a week's worth of insanity."

The unveiling and subsequent success of the festival last October (with 2,000-plus in ticket sales, it was tipped as one of the 10 best festivals of last fall by indie electronica bible Resident Advisor) provided the foundation for VIA to evolve into a permanent cultural force in Pittsburgh. Over the course of the next year, VIA Presents offered a monthly art exhibition/concert series at venues across the city, booked and curated with the same forward-thinking fervor that informed the programming of the original festival.

According to Ms. Goshinski, VIA Presents was a way to keep the "VIA" brand relevant and create some traction with the public that may have missed out on the festival the first time around. "For better or worse, I think the values of things in Pittsburgh are gauged by a commitment over a period of time, rather than by discrete instances of strong programming," said local visualization/video artist Matt Wellings, who will be collaborating with Wolf Eyes for a live set at VIA 2011. "I think VIA was incredibly strong coming out of the gate and the monthly concert series has done quite a bit to ensure its reputation. But I think it's taken the press and public a little time to catch up with how unique VIA really is."

The artists exhibited at the VIA Presents events ranged from festival alumni like Big Freedia and Dam Funk, up and coming artists making their first stop in Pittsburgh like Omar-S, Teengirl Fantasy and Pictureplane, and local music scene fixtures and digital media artists like Jason Cuban, DJ Cutups, Casey Hallas and Rina Las Vegas.

"VIA has become a brand of good taste," said Jen Inman of video artist duo Pure Hype. "The monthly shows were a great way to keep everyone excited. People trust that events associated with [VIA] will be good, regardless of whether they know the acts or not."

VIA Presents events were showcased at spaces such as established venues Brillobox and The Shadow Lounge, but also shed some light on unique spots off the beaten path of the city's music and arts scene, exposing hidden gem spaces like the Lawrenceville Moose Lodge, Turkish restaurant Istanbul, makeshift party space Helter Shelter, and underground concert venue The Shop in Bloomfield.

"There is an unlimited amount of spaces to explore in Pittsburgh. I feel like probably every month since we've started I've heard about a new space," said Matt McDermott, a former show promoter and member of VIA's planning team. "[For VIA events] I think we bring something different to the table. For us, it's important to set some sort of historical precedent, to not only have a great party but to have a context for it. At the same time, we're basically doing the type of events we would want to go to."

The 2011 version of the VIA Music and New Media Festival will be expanding, altering and enhancing the 2010 model, with a larger footprint in Pittsburgh and a bigger lineup. The festival is now spread over five days, running through Saturday, with a wrap party on Oct. 16, four different neighborhoods (Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Oakland and the South Side) and featuring 40-plus musicians and artists.

The 2011 lineup not only consists of heavy hitters like down-tempo savant Four Tet (who will be unveiling the U.S. premiere of Partitura, his collaboration with visual artists Abstract Birds), math-rockers Battles and Mexican hip-hop alchemist Toy Selectah, but local and underground stars as well.

Pittsburgh post-rockers Centipede Eest and esteemed electro duo Zombi (with visuals from Vade) will be sharing the stage alongside Stones Throw svengali Peanut Butter Wolf and militant techno legend Underground Resistance, who will be performing it's classic 1998 LP "Interstellar Fugitives."

And while the first two nights of programming are on traditional stages at the Brillobox in Lawrenceville and the Rex Theatre on the South Side, the focal point of this year's festival will take place Friday and Saturday at what is being described as a "pop-up village" on the Broad Street block behind Penn Avenue in the heart of East Liberty.

Ms. Goshinski and her fellow organizers found the location after scouting handfuls of new spots for the 2011 festival. Once they discovered the Broad Street Mall, they immediately realized its untapped potential.

"On the ground, it gave us exactly the feeling we want other people to have, stumbling upon a special experience in their own town and thinking, 'Holy [expletive], what is this magical place?' " said Ms. Goshinski. "Back in the day, the location was a bustling area. The street is meant for walking/exploring/entertainment."

In addition to the outdoor main performance stage featuring some of the more experimental first-time acts like Araab Muzik, Light Asylum and Ford & Lopatin, the "village" will have buildings with a pop-up "film lounge" from The Warhol Museum and Carnegie Museum of Art, the 2011 Pittsburgh Small Press Festival, and artist spaces featuring installation pieces and workshops.

The "village" model not only brings a dynamic new element into the festival's programming and planning, but also provides an example for small-scale community development next to the established outlets that have settled in East Liberty like Home Depot and Target.

"[At this year's event] the plan is to move people from neighborhood to neighborhood with the final focus on an emerging site," said Ms. Goshinski. "With East Liberty in a state of flux, we see this street's potential for being a place for independent and creative businesses to thrive right next to the big boxes."

Moving forward from the 2011 festival, the plans and ambitions of the people behind VIA will only get bigger, with aspirations to eventually turn the event into a true citywide experience, "integrated with venues and organizations, large and small, mainstream and totally undercover ... creating a unique festival experience from scratch inside city limits," according to Ms. Goshinki. "We aren't here to keep adding to the pot. We're here to keep things moving forward."