Purple Tour pumps up music, Pitt students, during early voting at Soldiers & Sailors

Music was bumping outside Pittsburgh's Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum on Fifth Avenue Wednesday as part of a dance party encouraging people to vote early in the presidential election.

Dubbed Party to the Polls, the event was part of a 40-stop nonpartisan Purple Tour across the country encouraging people on both sides of the aisle to vote. The tour was created by Daybreaker , an all-ages wellness movement which has been hosting sober dance parties across the world for 10 years.

Soldiers & Sailors served as an Allegheny County satellite voting center for the past three days. People could register to vote, fill out a ballot and turn in a mail-in ballot all at one site.

Though that location is now closed, satellite voting centers will be open the next two weekends on Oct. 19-20 and Oct. 26-17 at the following sites:

Timothy Patch, co-founder and chief operating officer of Daybreaker, based out of Brooklyn, said this is the first time the organization has branched out into politics to hold an election tour, stopping at early voting locations, registration events and actual election day events at polling stations, venues and clubs in major metro areas.

"We're bringing red and blue together," Patch said, referring to the Purple Tour moniker. "We all care about politics ... it's just been such a divisive season."

The "Party to the Polls" event included a party bus, DJs, live musicians playing saxophones, drums, a trumpet and a trombone, and even a pole dancer to encourage people to vote at the poll. People who walked by could enjoy free coffee and food while they got their voter registration checked by the Purple Tour team.

"The goal is just to bring some art and music and dance and celebration to voting and bring some positive fanfare to the election season this year," Patch said, hoping to unify voters.

Near the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh's campus in the city's Oakland section, "Party to the Polls" attracted college students. Patch said the purpose was to bring fun to voting.

"We're really trying to help new voters get out, and first-time voters," Patch said. "[There are] so many at a campus like this."

As a freshman at Pitt studying psychology, Hayden Hodges decided to vote early Wednesday to make sure his voice is heard in the upcoming election.

"I think it just brings people together, and it hypes people up about voting," Hayes said of the Purple Tour.

Hodges, 18, said the biggest issues for him in the election include basic human rights, women's health care and being able to afford to live.

He said he's noticed many voting organizations on Pitt's campus encouraging students to register to vote. Hodges is part of Project 26 at Pitt, a nonpartisan organization that helps students through the election process.

"I would definitely say there's like a huge push," Hodges said.

Audrey Wang also showed up to vote early.

"I'm voting for democracy, I'm voting for women, I'm voting for trans people, queer people," said Wang, 19, a sophomore studying political science and psychology at Pitt. "I'm voting for poor people, for the working class ... I'm voting for people of color, and I'm voting for my Asian-American community."

Wang said her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. Her mom is a naturalized citizen while her dad is a visiting scholar on a visa. People who want to immigrate to the United States need to be better supported throughout the process, which needs to be more accessible, she said.

"Both are here legally, but they still get targeted," Wang said. "I want my immigrant parents to have the right to be here legally — to be here safe without being constantly questioned."

Wang also was casting her vote with her little brother in mind.

"I want him to be able to go to school without being scared of gun violence," Wang said.

The Purple Tour includes various celebrity guests, according to Patch. Actresses Abbi Jacobson and Jodi Balfour were in Pittsburgh on Wednesday for the event, which is why Kate O'Meara decided to come out.

O'Meara, 23, of Cranberry, is a Pitt graduate. She saw Jacobson, who's in the TV series "A League of Their Own," which was filmed in Pittsburgh, post on Instagram that she would be there.

"It's been fun," O'Meara said of the dance party. "I think it definitely helps people want to vote — makes them excited about something."

Although O'Meara acknowledged she couldn't vote Wednesday because she's from Butler County, she said she showed up because she's passionate about politics.

"I feel like it's important to vote for what you believe in and speak up for what you believe in," O'Meara said.