Arts & Entertainment

5 Tips for Your Musikfest Visit

Did you know you can reserve Musikfest parking? And what to do with those extra food and beverage tickets.

Musikfest, the largest ungated free music festival in the country, gets under way Friday night at the SteelStacks campus in South Bethlehem and the Colonial Industrial Quarter and Main Street in North Bethlehem.

Opening ceremonies for the 30th Musikfest are set for 6 p.m. at the Levitt Pavilion at SteelStacks, though many of the free stages get under way earlier.

The Patch Guide to Musikfest 2013 is filled with handy information for the Musikfest novice or veteran. But here are five more tips for getting the most of your festival visit:

Avoid Route 412

If you are planning to come to Musikfest during the next 10 days and you don’t call Bethlehem home, ArtsQuest officials are strongly advising that you avoid using the Route 412 exit from Interstate 78 to get into the city.

That is because the road is currently under construction as part of a three-year $36 million road widening project.

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Instead, ArtsQuest spokesman Mark Demko suggests using Route 378, which can be accessed from Route 22, and provides easy access to the Martin Tower parking lot where a round trip shuttle to the North Side platzes costs $4.

Route 378 can also take you into South Bethlehem where a left turn off of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge can take you to the parking lot at 240 Emery St., where a round trip shuttle buses to SteelStacks also costs $4, Demko said.

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Those coming from New Jersey on I-78 should get off at Philipsburg and take Route 22 to west to Route 378. If you are already in Pennsylvania on I-78, take Route 33 north to Route 22 west to Route 378 south.

Reserve Your Parking

We can’t stress enough that public parking in the immediate area near SteelStacks is very limited during Musikfest. That said, there is a way to reserve a public parking spot in advance at one of the South Side Bethlehem Parking Authority lots.

Click on this link, supply vehicle, arrival time and credit card information and a parking spot will be reserved for you. A $1.99 fee will be tacked onto the $10 flat rate for parking at an authority lot.

Styx & Foreigner Are Sold Out

If you had your heart set on seeing Wednesday’s show with classic rock bands Foreigner and Styx, and you haven’t already bought tickets, you’re out of luck. The show is the first ticketed event at the 2013 festival to be sold out.

Still, there would be plenty of other reasons to visit the festival on that night in particular, including Louisiana legend Buckwheat Zydeco at Volksplatz, local favorite Don Cunningham and The Associates playing classic rock at the Musikfest Café or dancing at Festplatz during Disco Day.

There are also nine other main stage shows for which tickets are still available. They are:

·  Carly Rae Jepsen—Aug. 2

·  OneRepublic with Mayer Hawthorne and Churchill—Aug. 3

·  Skillet, We As Human, Decyfer Down, Thousand Foot Krutch—Aug.4

·  Frampton’s Guitar Circus, featuring Peter Frampton, B.B. King and Sonny Landreth—Aug. 5

·  George Thorogood & The Destroyers and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes—Aug. 6

·  KC and the Sunshine Band and The Family Stone—Aug. 8

·  Darius Rucker—Aug. 9

·  Ke$ha—Aug. 10

·  Avenged Sevenfold—Aug. 11

There's An App For That

Users of iPhones and iPads can have all the festival information at their fingertips with a free app available at the iTunes store.

Among the many features in the app, are performance schedules by date and venue, biographies for 300 performers, festival updates in real time and search options so patrons can look for their favorite music and vendors. The app also includes an interactive festival map, parking and general festival information, and contests, promotions and discounts available only to app users.

Extra Food Tickets? No Problem

If you get stuck with extra Musikfest food and beverage tickets, you can use them at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks until Sept. 2 in three ways.

  • Up to $5 on a $25 food or beverage purchase (excluding alcohol) at Mike & Ike’s Bistro or the Musikfest Café.
  • Up to $5 on $25 in souvenirs and merchandise at the Stacks Shop in the ArtsQuest Center.
  • Up to $5 per ticket on all film, comedy and concert tickets bought at the ArtsQuest Center box office. 

Bethlehem Patch will have news and features about the festival over the next 10 days. We also invite you to share your own experiences, photos and impressions of the festival. Start your own festival blog here.


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