Randy & Betty in Pa
08-06-2008, 11:50 AM
Our 25 best tips for making the most of Musikfest 25
By Kathy Lauer-Williams | Of The Morning Call
July 27, 2008
1. Best place to park: Avoid the headaches and tickets by parking in a free satellite lot -- Route 412 and Lynn Avenue, Lehigh Shopping Center and Martin Tower. Shuttles from the lots cost $4 round trip; free, 10 and under.
2. Best place to find a restroom (with plumbing): During the day public bathrooms are available at Bethlehem Area Public Library, until 5 p.m., and at City Hall, until 4:30 p.m. There also are bathrooms at Main Street Commons, Main and Broad streets, the public parking garages by North and Walnut streets and at Foy Hall during concerts.
3. Best place to take the kids: Banana Island offers kid-friendly music daily until 6 p.m., activities, crafts, rides, bungee jump.
4. Best place to escape with the kids: The large shaded playground next to the Ice House on Sand Island has swings, slides, climbing equipment and a water fountain.
5. Best place to change a diaper: Lehigh Valley Hospital & Health Network has first aid tents at Banana Island, RiverPlace, Festplatz and Volksplatz that provide a private area for diaper changing and supplies.
6. Best place to relax: The sculpture and Japanese gardens by the Bethlehem Area Public Library.
7. Best place to find shade: Underneath the Hill-To-Hill Bridge just south of Handwerkplatzalong the Monocacy Creek.
8. Best platz: Nothing beats the intimacy of Liederplatz, tucked behind the Sun Inn, where music ranges from Celtic to blues.
9. Best indoor platz: OK, it's not an official platz, but Moravian College's Foy Hall, which hosts the Candlelight Concert series, is not only a great place to hear a concert but has air-conditioning, comfy seats,bathrooms and a water fountain.
10. Best place to get food: Volksplatz gets my vote with its ethnic-leaning offerings from jerk chicken to jambalaya to baklava.
11. Best food: One tasty Musikfest staple is Hogar Crea's shish-kabobs sizzling on giant outdoor grills at Handwerkplatz. Served simply on a skewer with a hunk of bread.
12. Most decadent food: Many vendors now offer the fat-laden fried Oreo, but D&J Concessions at Plaza Tropical does them all one better -- fried cheesecake, fried Twinkies and fried candy bars.
13. Best beer: The brews are standard fare -- Rolling Rock, Yuengling Lager, Miller Light and Molson Canadian. But Heineken will offer samples of Heineken premium light Monday through Thursday.
14. Best hidden gem of an act: Folksinger Janis Ian, who received five Grammy noms for her song of teen angst ''At Seventeen'' gives free concerts Aug. 5 at 5 p.m. at Lyrikplatz and 8:30-11 p.m. at Liederplatz.
15. Best ''hidden'' entertainment: From 2 to 10 p.m. daily, the buskers -- entertainers who perform death-defying skateboard tricks, quick escape acts and juggling feats -- will perform along Main Street and at other locations.
16. Best place to do the Chicken Dance: Festplatz is the ideal spot for a chicken dance but it's always better done with a chicken. Polka-Fest is Aug. 3 and the Chicken Lady arrives Aug. 1-3.
17. Best time to avoid crowds: Early birds can relax more from noon-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and still hear great acts like popsters 1910 Fruitgum Company and indie rocker Tommy Womack.
18. Best idea for transportation: With gas at $4 a gallon, ride your bike to Musikfest. Cyclists get free monitored parking by the Second Avenue Ramp off the Hill-to-Hill Bridge and on the north side of City Hall near Americaplatz. Bikers also get a free roundtrip trolley pass. Bring your own lock.
19. Best alternative transportation: LANTA/Metro shuttle buses operate 6-11:30 p.m. daily during Musikfest with an unlimited daily pass for $2.50.
20. Best place to see the fireworks: The view from the bridges -- Hill-to-Hill, Fahy and Minsi Trail -- is good. Other spots are the the top of the Walnut Street and Main Street Commons parking decks, and South Mountain.
21. Best shoes to wear: Leave the heels at home. Sneakers are your best bet. Most of the area is paved, but Bethlehem has some serious grades right in the middle of the festival.
22. Best essential accessories: Afternoon thunderstorms are a regular occurrence, so be ready with your bumbershoot. And don't forget the sunscreen -- the sun can be brutal and there's not a lot of shade.
23. Best way to get around when your feet get tired: Musikfest trolleys travel continuously to all festival sites and the City of Bethlehem parking garages. Round trip fare is $1 or 2 food tickets and exact change is required. Purchase a 2008 souvenir pin for $6 and you get unlimited trolley rides.
24. Best merchandise: Light-up refillable mugs are cool and always hot sellers. The lime green 25th anniversary edition is sure to go fast.
25. Best way to plan your day: Check out the acts on Musikfest's Web site ahead of time and sample the bands with Musikfest radio to lay out a plan of attack.
kathy.lauer@mcall.com
Musikfest at 25: new platz, new workshops and a pub night
By Geoff Gehman | Of The Morning Call
July 27, 2008
Bob Dylan always encores with ''All Along the Watchtower.'' Tony Bennett can't get leave town without singing ''I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'' And every Musikfest must have a few new wrinkles.
The 25th edition, which opens Friday, is a typical smorgasbord: more than 550 performances on 14 stages over 10 days. But there's also a new platz, new workshops, new daredevils and a new pub night for drinking from new souvenir steins.
Lyrikplatz: Singer-songwriters perform acoustic instruments on the festival's eighth free outdoor stage, located by the recently restored 18th-century Moravian smithy.
On Aug. 10 Alfred James plays a carbon-fiber cello and Craig Bickhardt sings songs he wrote for the Judds (''Turn It Loose'') and the film ''Tender Mercies'' (''You Are What Love Means to Me'').
''The Art of Musik'': This year's theme revolves around workshops by nine festival acts in Moravian College's Peter Hall.
On Aug. 2 Ernie Hawkins, who studied the blues with Reverend Gary Davis, discusses Piedmont-style guitar. The next day Resonance Percussion demonstrates the tropical breeze of steel drums.
Cacophony for kids: ''Art of Musik'' youngsters can make songs during an Aug. 10 workshop with Two of a Kind, make instruments with bottlecap maestro Mr. Imagination and bang pans and cans during a daily parade of joyful noise.
''Swoon!'': Members of Strange Fruit, a dance/theater/circus troupe from Australia, perform a daredevil act about love on swaying 13-foot-high poles on Aug. 1-2 and 5-9 at Handwerkplatz.
Handbuch: This onli ne guide to the festival's venues doubles as an interactive contest about the history of the platzes.
The winner receives two VIP tickets to each of next year's 10 shows at RiverPlace. http://www.musikfest.org .
Silver-anniversary souvenirs: The 25th-edition stoneware mug has a pretzel-shaped handle. The 25th-edition stein, the festival's first custom reliefed drinking vessel, re-creates the happy tuba-playing Oktoberfester from the first poster.
Return of the Chicken Lady. Fine-feathered Pat Holetz, who retired to Florida in 2004, once again leads festival-goers in spastic antics Aug. 1-3 at Festplatz and Banana Island.
Irish Pub Night: On Aug. 4 Liederplatz becomes a Celtic roadhouse for seven hours and change.
Drink Smitticks while listening to gypsy bluegrass from the Sligo Rags and bodhran-and-bouzouki tunes from Kennedy's Kitchen, a quintet that sometimes quotes ''Finnegan's Wake.''
A household name plays for free. The Aug. 5 Liederplatz concert by Janis Ian, the confessional troubadour who wrote ''At Seventeen'' and ''Jesse,'' is a rare non-admission gig by a headliner, a throwback to 1980s dates with Judy Collins and Ray Charles.
Ian will make a special event more special by signing copies of ''Society's Child,'' her new autobiography, on Aug. 4 at the Moravian Book Shop.
Festival newcomers: Soul singer Ryan Shaw (Aug. 7 Americaplatz), a babe in the woods at 26, could be mistaken for Sam and Dave Jr. The Section Quartet (Aug. 7 Liederplatz) performs rockers -- Led Zeppelin's ''Heartbreaker,'' the Strokes' ''Juicebox'' -- on classical strings.
New tricks for old dogs: 38 Special, usually an outdoor act during the summer, performs Aug. 3 in Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center, a fairly sedate room for these gutsy Southern rockers.
On Aug. 8 Stone Temple Pilots becomes RiverPlace's first recently reunited major rock band, a major reason the concert is sold out.
Blues-rock guitarist Craig Thatcher, a festival favorite, leads a house band in an all-star 25th-anniversary jam Aug. 10 at Americaplatz.
Feting the future: An Aug. 10 party in a parking lot near Bethlehem Steel's blast furnaces celebrates the future site of SteelStax, a town square planned by ArtsQuest, Musikfest's parent, and PBS 39.
It's a splendid spot to watch the fireworks finale and imagine a larger, smarter RiverPlace.
geoff.gehman@mcall.com
By Kathy Lauer-Williams | Of The Morning Call
July 27, 2008
1. Best place to park: Avoid the headaches and tickets by parking in a free satellite lot -- Route 412 and Lynn Avenue, Lehigh Shopping Center and Martin Tower. Shuttles from the lots cost $4 round trip; free, 10 and under.
2. Best place to find a restroom (with plumbing): During the day public bathrooms are available at Bethlehem Area Public Library, until 5 p.m., and at City Hall, until 4:30 p.m. There also are bathrooms at Main Street Commons, Main and Broad streets, the public parking garages by North and Walnut streets and at Foy Hall during concerts.
3. Best place to take the kids: Banana Island offers kid-friendly music daily until 6 p.m., activities, crafts, rides, bungee jump.
4. Best place to escape with the kids: The large shaded playground next to the Ice House on Sand Island has swings, slides, climbing equipment and a water fountain.
5. Best place to change a diaper: Lehigh Valley Hospital & Health Network has first aid tents at Banana Island, RiverPlace, Festplatz and Volksplatz that provide a private area for diaper changing and supplies.
6. Best place to relax: The sculpture and Japanese gardens by the Bethlehem Area Public Library.
7. Best place to find shade: Underneath the Hill-To-Hill Bridge just south of Handwerkplatzalong the Monocacy Creek.
8. Best platz: Nothing beats the intimacy of Liederplatz, tucked behind the Sun Inn, where music ranges from Celtic to blues.
9. Best indoor platz: OK, it's not an official platz, but Moravian College's Foy Hall, which hosts the Candlelight Concert series, is not only a great place to hear a concert but has air-conditioning, comfy seats,bathrooms and a water fountain.
10. Best place to get food: Volksplatz gets my vote with its ethnic-leaning offerings from jerk chicken to jambalaya to baklava.
11. Best food: One tasty Musikfest staple is Hogar Crea's shish-kabobs sizzling on giant outdoor grills at Handwerkplatz. Served simply on a skewer with a hunk of bread.
12. Most decadent food: Many vendors now offer the fat-laden fried Oreo, but D&J Concessions at Plaza Tropical does them all one better -- fried cheesecake, fried Twinkies and fried candy bars.
13. Best beer: The brews are standard fare -- Rolling Rock, Yuengling Lager, Miller Light and Molson Canadian. But Heineken will offer samples of Heineken premium light Monday through Thursday.
14. Best hidden gem of an act: Folksinger Janis Ian, who received five Grammy noms for her song of teen angst ''At Seventeen'' gives free concerts Aug. 5 at 5 p.m. at Lyrikplatz and 8:30-11 p.m. at Liederplatz.
15. Best ''hidden'' entertainment: From 2 to 10 p.m. daily, the buskers -- entertainers who perform death-defying skateboard tricks, quick escape acts and juggling feats -- will perform along Main Street and at other locations.
16. Best place to do the Chicken Dance: Festplatz is the ideal spot for a chicken dance but it's always better done with a chicken. Polka-Fest is Aug. 3 and the Chicken Lady arrives Aug. 1-3.
17. Best time to avoid crowds: Early birds can relax more from noon-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and still hear great acts like popsters 1910 Fruitgum Company and indie rocker Tommy Womack.
18. Best idea for transportation: With gas at $4 a gallon, ride your bike to Musikfest. Cyclists get free monitored parking by the Second Avenue Ramp off the Hill-to-Hill Bridge and on the north side of City Hall near Americaplatz. Bikers also get a free roundtrip trolley pass. Bring your own lock.
19. Best alternative transportation: LANTA/Metro shuttle buses operate 6-11:30 p.m. daily during Musikfest with an unlimited daily pass for $2.50.
20. Best place to see the fireworks: The view from the bridges -- Hill-to-Hill, Fahy and Minsi Trail -- is good. Other spots are the the top of the Walnut Street and Main Street Commons parking decks, and South Mountain.
21. Best shoes to wear: Leave the heels at home. Sneakers are your best bet. Most of the area is paved, but Bethlehem has some serious grades right in the middle of the festival.
22. Best essential accessories: Afternoon thunderstorms are a regular occurrence, so be ready with your bumbershoot. And don't forget the sunscreen -- the sun can be brutal and there's not a lot of shade.
23. Best way to get around when your feet get tired: Musikfest trolleys travel continuously to all festival sites and the City of Bethlehem parking garages. Round trip fare is $1 or 2 food tickets and exact change is required. Purchase a 2008 souvenir pin for $6 and you get unlimited trolley rides.
24. Best merchandise: Light-up refillable mugs are cool and always hot sellers. The lime green 25th anniversary edition is sure to go fast.
25. Best way to plan your day: Check out the acts on Musikfest's Web site ahead of time and sample the bands with Musikfest radio to lay out a plan of attack.
kathy.lauer@mcall.com
Musikfest at 25: new platz, new workshops and a pub night
By Geoff Gehman | Of The Morning Call
July 27, 2008
Bob Dylan always encores with ''All Along the Watchtower.'' Tony Bennett can't get leave town without singing ''I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'' And every Musikfest must have a few new wrinkles.
The 25th edition, which opens Friday, is a typical smorgasbord: more than 550 performances on 14 stages over 10 days. But there's also a new platz, new workshops, new daredevils and a new pub night for drinking from new souvenir steins.
Lyrikplatz: Singer-songwriters perform acoustic instruments on the festival's eighth free outdoor stage, located by the recently restored 18th-century Moravian smithy.
On Aug. 10 Alfred James plays a carbon-fiber cello and Craig Bickhardt sings songs he wrote for the Judds (''Turn It Loose'') and the film ''Tender Mercies'' (''You Are What Love Means to Me'').
''The Art of Musik'': This year's theme revolves around workshops by nine festival acts in Moravian College's Peter Hall.
On Aug. 2 Ernie Hawkins, who studied the blues with Reverend Gary Davis, discusses Piedmont-style guitar. The next day Resonance Percussion demonstrates the tropical breeze of steel drums.
Cacophony for kids: ''Art of Musik'' youngsters can make songs during an Aug. 10 workshop with Two of a Kind, make instruments with bottlecap maestro Mr. Imagination and bang pans and cans during a daily parade of joyful noise.
''Swoon!'': Members of Strange Fruit, a dance/theater/circus troupe from Australia, perform a daredevil act about love on swaying 13-foot-high poles on Aug. 1-2 and 5-9 at Handwerkplatz.
Handbuch: This onli ne guide to the festival's venues doubles as an interactive contest about the history of the platzes.
The winner receives two VIP tickets to each of next year's 10 shows at RiverPlace. http://www.musikfest.org .
Silver-anniversary souvenirs: The 25th-edition stoneware mug has a pretzel-shaped handle. The 25th-edition stein, the festival's first custom reliefed drinking vessel, re-creates the happy tuba-playing Oktoberfester from the first poster.
Return of the Chicken Lady. Fine-feathered Pat Holetz, who retired to Florida in 2004, once again leads festival-goers in spastic antics Aug. 1-3 at Festplatz and Banana Island.
Irish Pub Night: On Aug. 4 Liederplatz becomes a Celtic roadhouse for seven hours and change.
Drink Smitticks while listening to gypsy bluegrass from the Sligo Rags and bodhran-and-bouzouki tunes from Kennedy's Kitchen, a quintet that sometimes quotes ''Finnegan's Wake.''
A household name plays for free. The Aug. 5 Liederplatz concert by Janis Ian, the confessional troubadour who wrote ''At Seventeen'' and ''Jesse,'' is a rare non-admission gig by a headliner, a throwback to 1980s dates with Judy Collins and Ray Charles.
Ian will make a special event more special by signing copies of ''Society's Child,'' her new autobiography, on Aug. 4 at the Moravian Book Shop.
Festival newcomers: Soul singer Ryan Shaw (Aug. 7 Americaplatz), a babe in the woods at 26, could be mistaken for Sam and Dave Jr. The Section Quartet (Aug. 7 Liederplatz) performs rockers -- Led Zeppelin's ''Heartbreaker,'' the Strokes' ''Juicebox'' -- on classical strings.
New tricks for old dogs: 38 Special, usually an outdoor act during the summer, performs Aug. 3 in Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center, a fairly sedate room for these gutsy Southern rockers.
On Aug. 8 Stone Temple Pilots becomes RiverPlace's first recently reunited major rock band, a major reason the concert is sold out.
Blues-rock guitarist Craig Thatcher, a festival favorite, leads a house band in an all-star 25th-anniversary jam Aug. 10 at Americaplatz.
Feting the future: An Aug. 10 party in a parking lot near Bethlehem Steel's blast furnaces celebrates the future site of SteelStax, a town square planned by ArtsQuest, Musikfest's parent, and PBS 39.
It's a splendid spot to watch the fireworks finale and imagine a larger, smarter RiverPlace.
geoff.gehman@mcall.com