![]() ![]() The pavilion has space for 2,500 concert-goers, who will be able to relax on the lawn on blankets or chairs while listening to an eclectic mixture of music presented by local, regional, and national performers.Īs if all this weren’t enough, there is still SteelStacks Phase 2, which is expected to be completed sometime next year. The pavilion, which is only the sixth of its kind in the U.S., is made possible by the Mortimer Levitt Foundation and the national Levitt Pavilions organization. The Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks on First Street in front of the blast furnaces will offer 33 free concerts this year and 50 next year from May through August on a 47-foot wide stage covered by a 36-foot high metal canopy. Later this year, visitors can round out their holiday activities by visiting Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem and the PEEPS Fest family festival, which will relocate from the North side of Bethlehem to South side’s PNC Plaza. 16-18, and Oktoberfest will be held for two weekends on Sept. 2-5, the Blast Furnace Blues Festival is on Sept. Besides those already held this summer, the SteelJam Festival is scheduled for Sept. The PNC Plaza will also host a variety of arts and music events throughout the year in the form of five new festivals, a farmers’ market, and an arts and antique market. “Comedy was definitely something people wanted,” Parks explained, adding that ArtsQuest began incorporating it into Musikfest two years ago. Besides a plethora of musical offerings, the Center holds comedy improvisations on Sunday nights and weekly shows on Wednesday nights showcasing the talents of comedians who have appeared in New York comedy clubs and on national television. It hosts the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema, the Musikfest Café, meeting and small banquet rooms, and art exhibit space. After seven years of planning and 14 months of construction, the Center provides contemporary facilities for enjoying music, films, art, dining, and socializing. The ArtsQuest Center is the heart of SteelStacks. “We have been able to incorporate almost everything we wanted.” “Everything” includes a broad spectrum of indoor and outdoor facilities providing 365-day-a-year events and performances. In the planning of SteelStacks, Parks says content drove the nature of the buildings. ![]() Parks says it was the concert venues that struck him the most.įor the next two years after visiting Germany, ArtsQuest reached out to local businessmen and residents to determine what programs would best benefit the community. ![]() The park featured beautiful residential buildings along the river, an educational facility, a lighted steel mill, and recreational and music venues. Not unlike the Lehigh Valley, Landschasts Park had been developed when major industries abandoned the Ruhr Valley for Southern Germany. The inspiration for SteelStacks was Germany’s Landschasts Park in the Ruhr Valley, which Parks and his staff visited in 2002. Right from the time of Bethlehem Steel’s closing, ArtsQuest started exploring ways that it could be involved in the development of the vacant steel plant and grounds, according to President and COO Jeff Parks, the man who started it all with Musikfest back in the 1980s. ![]() It was the closing of Bethlehem Steel’s sprawling industrial complex in 1995 that provided the catalyst for SteelStacks, which features the ArtsQuest Center that opened this past April, and when fully operational will include a Festival Center, the Levitt Pavilion for free outdoor concerts, and the PNC Plaza, a 150,000 square foot open-air space for farmers, arts and antique markets. The concept of one door closing and another opening is perfectly epitomized by the development of SteelStacks, a comprehensive arts and performance campus conceived and operated by ArtsQuest and located in the shadow of the former Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. ![]()
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