Celebrating Bethlehem's Southside Culture
Every Monday night starting at 5:00, Lehigh Valley locals come together at the Bethlehem Area Public Library (BAPL) to share their creative work at an open mic. Typically, the weekly event is hosted by Bill Medei in the Cohen Room and runs for approximately two and a half hours. BAPL’s open mic night provides space…
It’s Friday the 13th in October, the spookiest day of the year. National Sokols Lodge on Bethlehem’s South Side is nearing capacity, filled with an energetic, multi-generational audience shouting along to cover bands playing their favorite songs from bands like My Chemical Romance, Black Sabbath, and Title Fight. A fog machine billows gray smoke into…
As part of the ongoing programming for Festival Unbound 2020, Touchstone Theatre put together a socially-distanced concert, called “Songs of Hope and Resistance,” to champion “diversity, community, and freedom” in the Lehigh Valley. The Touchstone ensemble felt that the pandemic and the urgent struggle for racial justice must be marked by music. Music provides our…
On June 25th, Artsquest and Steelstacks hosted another “Levitt in Your Living Room” free concert to share the “sultry sound, clear tone, [and] funky groove” of Gina Chavez. The concert, shared on a live stream from Gina Chavez’s living room, featured Chavez playing as a one-woman band, and interacting with listeners through chat on Facebook….
Hippo Campus invigorated the SteelStacks crowd on November 5th at the Musikfest Café. The band performed a dynamic line-up of alternative rock pieces with jazz inspired roots after a rousing opening by indie rock band The Greeting Committee. The concert brought a nice mix of Bethlehem locals and students together to enjoy a high energy…
Author Delia Marrero is the Development Coordinator for Lehigh Valley Girls Rock, an organization dedicated to empowering girls and women + trans and nonbinary folks through music and art. The National Sokols Hall hosted Lehigh Valley Girls Rock’s Ladyfest fundraiser on Saturday, June 15, 2019. Bands came together and filled the hall with the sounds…
The Bethlehem Harvest Fest, which took place in historic North Side Bethlehem, was full of local venders and great music on Saturday, October 6. It is a celebration of autumn as local venders sell their goods and musicians provide entertainment for guests. This year a few local bands came to play, including Ramtrout and James Supra/Sarah…
Hit Folk Band Brings the Local Community Together Through Music Milky Chance, a German folk band, thrilled an excited crowd during its September 28th concert at ArtsQuest’s Musikfest Cafe venue. The concert was part of Yuengling’s Summer Concert Series. The opener of the concert, South African singer/songwriter Jeremy Loops, stunned the audience with “Down South,”…
On the nights of June 11 and 13, crowds of Beatles fans attended the limited showing of Scott Freiman’s film Deconstructing The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, as part of the “talkback series” at the SteelStacks Theater. Rubber Soul strikes me as the red-headed step child of “favorite Beatles albums.” Usually, the choices are Sgt Pepper or…
Origin Story Dave Fry knew that Bethlehem needed a unique space for music lovers, and since founding Godfrey Daniels, a folk music listening room and performance club, in 1976, he and his club have done nothing but thrive. Providing a listening space away from the busy night scene, Fry and his friends created Godfrey Daniels…