Musikfest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musikfest is a music festival held each August in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The festival begins on the first Friday in August and ends on a Sunday ten days later.
1,000,000 visitors each year make the trip to Bethlehem to participate in this celebration that weaves through a Moravian Community that dates to 1741. These 1,000,000 visitors (100,000 daily) are treated to somewhere between 700 and 1,000 free shows at the festival. Every night the premium venue has one show from a medium to large recording artist. These premium shows require advance tickets for a fee.
Past headlining shows have included REO Speedwagon, Air Supply, Boyz II Men, Dixie Chicks, Dr. Demento (with some "Weird Al" Yankovic thrown in), Duran Duran, George Thorogood, Hootie & the Blowfish, Jethro Tull, Jonny Lang, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Clay Aiken, the Steve Miller Band, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Martina McBride, Earth Wind and Fire, Staind, Fuel, The Beach Boys, George Clinton, and in 2006, rock band Alice in Chains played one of their first American shows there, this after the death of Alice in Chains' original lead singer Layne Staley who died in 2002.
Food at the festival represents multiple ethnicities.
Local German roots are a foundation of this celebration of music and each of the several venues' names end in the German word for place, "platz". A popular place for eating and listening to music is the large "Festplatz" that covers 300 dining tables and usually features a polka band.
Musikfest is presented by ArtsQuest, a nonprofit arts organization founded to "celebrate arts and culture" in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. Proceeds from the event go to the Banana Factory, ArtsQuest's community arts center and gallery located in South Bethlehem, as well as other nonprofit groups in the region.
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[edit] 2008 Performers
[edit] RiverPlace Stage:
Avril Lavigne, Boston, Poison, Earth, Wind & Fire, Jethro Tull, Stone Temple Pilots, John Fogerty
[edit] Performing Arts Series:
Lez Zeppelin, Dennis DeYoung, Rosanne Cash
[edit] Candlelight Concert Series:
John Gorka, Eileen Ivers, Over the Rhine, Edwin McCain, The Dixie Hummingbirds and Christian McBride.
[edit] Performances by:
Janis Ian, Red Elvises, The Section Quartet, Scythian, Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, Mingo Fishtrap
[edit] 2007 Performers
[edit] RiverPlace Stage:
The Black Crowes, B.B. King, Etta James, Meat Loaf, The Moody Blues, Patti LaBelle, Deep Purple, John Kay & Steppenwolf, Ludacris, Joe Walsh, Big & Rich with Cowboy Troy and Stone Sour.
[edit] Performing Arts Series:
The Yellowjackets, Joan Osborne, Dark Star Orchestra, The Manhattan Transfer, The Yardbirds and Petula Clark.
[edit] Candlelight Concert Series:
Amos Lee, Jonatha Brooke, Tom Rush, Kim Richey, Cornell Gunter's Coasters and David Bromberg.
[edit] Performances by:
Bang Camaro, Tea Leaf Green, Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, Watermelon Slim & the Workers, Babatundae Lea, Stanton Moore, Entrain, Zydepunks, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, The Fabulous Greaseband, Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, Enter the Haggis, Scythian, Brother (band), Shafatullah Khan, Mingo Fishtrap, Groovelily, Arrogant Worms and literally hundreds more performers of countless different genres.
