 | Musikfest is a music festival held each August in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Musikfest 2008 is set for August 1-10. The festival, which is presented by ArtsQuest, features more than 500 musical performances on 14 indoor and outdoor stages, as well as a wide variety of food, children’s activities, visual arts and crafts and a closing-night fireworks spectacular. In 1984, nearly 182,000 people attended a small, grass-roots music festival in Bethlehem, Pa. featuring 118 performers and 295 performances on six stages. At the time, no one knew how large the event would grow or how long it would last. Amazingly, more than two decades have passed since that first Musikfest. And from those humble beginnings, the event has blossomed into a 10-day musical spectacular that attracts more than one million people from throughout the country. |
| 2008 Performers Avril Lavigne (see photo), Boston, Poison, Earth, Wind & Fire, Jethro Tull, Stone Temple Pilots, Lez Zeppelin, Dennis DeYoung, Rosanne Cash, John Gorka, Eileen Ivers, Over the Rhine, Edwin McCain, The Dixie Hummingbirds and Christian McBride, Janis Ian, Red Elvises, The Section Quartet, Scythian, Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, Mingo Fishtrap Avril Lavigne Whibley is a Canadian Grammy award-nominated pop punk singer, musician, fashion designer and actress. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood. Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002. Over 16 million copies were sold worldwide and it was certified six times platinum in the United States. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) sold 8 million copies and The Best Damn Thing (2007) currently over 5 million copies sold respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored six number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", and "Girlfriend" which became #1 hits in the ARC Top 40. She's ranked #50 on VH1's "50 Greatest Women Of The Video Era" show list and came 41st on "The Top Acts Of The Noughties". In December 2007, Lavigne was ranked at #7 in the Forbes "Top 20 Earners Under 25", with an annual earnings of $12 million. Currently, Avril Lavigne has sold about 30 million albums worldwide. The 2008 theme, “The Art of Musik,” is designed to explore the many elements that make up music, from the instruments to the songs to the performers themselves. One of the ways the festival is highlighting the theme is by adding a new Singer-Songwriter Stage on Main Street. The Singer-Songwriter Stage, the first new stage at Musikfest since Plaza Tropical in 2000, will feature local, regional and national blues, folk and rock acts playing every hour on the hour each day the festival is open. Just one example of the many performers who will take stage is Susie Keynes, vocalist and songwriter for the popular Australian folk-rock band Fruit, which is a favorite of many Musikfest fans. Another new component to Musikfest will be the “Art of Musik Workshops” series at Peter Hall on Moravian College’s Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus. The workshops, which are free and open to the public, will take place at 1 p.m. daily August 2-10. Event: Musikfest 2008 Date: August 1 (Friday) - 10 (Sunday), 2008 Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA | |
| SOURCE: Musikfest 2008 |
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