Arts & Culture

The 4th Annual International Cultural Festival on Saturday, Sept. 16, will feature handcrafts, performances and food from a diverse range of cultures around the globe.

Starting Friday, Sept. 15 is Halloween Haunt, a nighttime event meant to thrill and terrify in equal measure, running select nights through October 28.

The show, at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2, will be topped by Two-time WWE World Champion A.J. Styles, considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, and four-time World Champion Sheamus, the first Irish world champion in WWE history.

Saturday's festival will feature cooking and beauty demos, live music and guest lectures by authors.

The eighth Martin's Guitar Wood Summit was held Thursday at Martin & Co. in Nazareth. The main topic centered on sustainability of forests that provide wood used for guitar construction.

A stage play based on music from the Saturday morning “Schoolhouse Rock” animated series – much of it written by late Lehigh Valley-area resident Bob Dorough – is set to open Friday.

The Bethlehem Running Festival has added a half-marathon relay to its inaugural event on Oct. 21-22.

Allentown's 19th Street Theatre has been nominated to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

Workers battled oppressive heat while breaking down venues at the recently concluded 171st Allentown Fair on Tuesday, Final attendance figure for the six-day festival is expected to be released by next week.

Total attendance figures won't be released until later in the week, but they likely were helped by a week of splendid weather. The six-day fair started last Wednesday and wrapped up, as usual, with the demolition derby at the grandstand on Labor Day.

The Dubai chocolate trend was in the Lehigh Valley years before it went viral online. But recently, the trend has recirculated online and brought about new inspiration at local businesses.

Regional country singer Kendal Conrad, chart-topping punk-pop group Boys Like Girls and more have been announced as Musikfest main Steel Stage supporting acts.

Opening night of Dewey Fire Company's 110th annual carnival was canceled Tuesday because of rain, and officials say maintaining the staple community event has become more challenging.

Beep Boop, Beep Boop: A Sci-Fi Film Festival will be back at ArtsQuest Center's Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas for a fourth year July 25-28, with 11 films over four days.

Pennsylvania Music Preservation Society will present Music Alive at the Ritz, a series of shows on Sundays through October.

Sponge, whose biggest hit, “Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain),” hit No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock charts in 1994, will perform at The Gin Mill and Grill in Northampton. Sponge will top a five-act show at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13 in what the venue calls a "customer appreciation pre-Xmas bash."

The Party Animals traveling circus of Banana Ball couldn’t run without its many unsung heroes — from an umpire with a background in parkour to a player director with a degree in entertainment design.

The Knauss Homestead Preservation Society is coming back for its fourth year this summer at the Knauss Homestead Farmhouse in Emmaus. The late July event is free, but registration for attendance is required.

The quaint shop on North New Street sells stones from South America, Mexico and the Middle East, as well as locally themed artwork.

Coca-Cola Park will be hosting the Party Animals for two games of Banana Ball as part of the Banana Ball World Tour this weekend.

Foreigner, which ruled the charts from 1977 to 1987 with songs such as “Feels Like the First Time," "Hot Blooded" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You," will perform at Wind Creek Event Center on Sunday, Dec. 7.

Sigal Museum held a screening of Mariska Hargitay's movie about her famous mother for staff and volunteers on Tuesday. Hargitay filmed at the museum while tracing her family tree for the film.