Joy Machine

Joy Machine is Squonk’s newest large-scale outdoor spectacle: a wild, musical playground where giant puppets move, drums thunder, and enormous kinetic sculptures spring to life—because people like you make it all happen. This is a show where you don’t just attend . . . you activate it.

For more than 30 years, Squonk has created Pittsburgh-built spectacles that transform public spaces into places of wonder—free and open to all. No tickets. No barriers. Just music, imagination, and shared experience. In a world where so much of life is isolated and screen-bound, we make work that brings people together—face-to-face, hands-on, and fully present.

Now we’re building our most ambitious project yet.

Joy Machine turns the audience into the engine of the performance. 

Check out these photos of our concept model to get the idea . . .

Step in and help animate a towering street puppet. 

Play a massive drum wall and feel the rhythm ripple outward. 

Pull ropes to send acrobatic figures spinning through the air. 

Join others to power giant wings—lifting a shared moment of flight.

Every performance will be different—shaped by the people who show up and take part—and will incorporate the immersive audience interactivity that Squonk has pioneered for decades.

We’re launching Joy Machine this June in Pittsburgh, and we need your help to cross the finish line. Your support will help us build the set, complete the music, and bring this one-of-a-kind, free public experience to life—and then out into communities across the country.

At its heart, Joy Machine is simple:
Joy isn’t something we watch. It’s something we make—together.