Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 1995

Recorded on Sunday August 19, 1995 – I grabbed my camcorder and took my 13 year-old nephew to Musikfest. This was my favorite decade for Musikfest. It still felt like a local event, and the free concerts at Kuntzplatz were simply amazing! I saw Tom Jones, Ray Charles, The Fifth Dimension, America... Musikfest is an American music festival that has been held annually since 1984 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It claims to be the nation's largest non-gated free music festival. Each year, thousands of visitors and residents of Pennsylvania make the trip to Bethlehem to participate in a celebration that weaves through a Moravian community that dates back to 1741. Festival visitors are treated to hundreds of free shows over the course of the event as well as ticketed shows on larger stages. Local German roots are the foundation of the celebration, and most of the festival's venues use Platz, the German word for place or square, at the ends of their names. A popular place for eating and listening to music, for example, is the large "Festplatz," which includes 300 dining tables, and usually features a polka band each night. Beyond that, however, Musikfest's music, food, and other attractions represent a broad range of ethnicities. 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 benefit ArtsQuest ventures such as the Banana Factory community arts center in South Bethlehem, as well as other nonprofit groups throughout the region.