ALLENTOWN, Pa. — It was 1999, still deep in the midst of the boy band craze, and Allentown Fair had one of the Big Three at the time — 98° — headlining.
I was a newspaper editor, directing coverage of hard news, but my then-14-year-old daughter, Courtney, desperately wanted to see them. So, with her in tow, I became a music reviewer for the night.
In the time leading up to the show, the opening act, a teen singer named Britney Spears, was blowing up with her debut album, "...Baby One More Time," from which she had four platinum hits.
It was another example of how prescient the fair has been in booking headline acts (more about that later).
And despite the crowd's response for 98°, my review focused far more on Spears.
That was the first Allentown Fair headliner that I reviewed. And I haven't stopped.
The next year, 2000, I reviewed two shows: Destiny's Child with BBMak and boy band LFO with girl groups B*Witched and Blaque (also both with my daughter), then three in 2001.
Now, with Allentown Fair opening its 173rd year today, I have 25 years of reviewing grandstand shows behind me. (Because of COVID-19, there was no fair in 2020.)
In that time, I reviewed 77 grandstand headliners — more than half the 141 shows presented.
They've included rock, pop, country, hip-hop, children's shows and more — a statement of the fair's diverse offerings.
With a capacity of 10,500 people seated and up to 14,000 with standing on the track area, the grandstand is the Lehigh Valley's largest concert space — it typically accounts for 15% or more of the fair's annual 200,000 attendance.
This year’s lineup is no exception, offering classic rock, country, comedy and the annual Labor Day demolition derby. Tickets remain available for all the shows at the fair website and box office.
I expect to review more shows this year.
But in the meantime, here are the Top 10 best Allentown Fair concerts I've reviewed in the past 25 years. And a few more:
10. KISS, 2016.
It was KISS's first concert in Allentown in 26 years, its first in the Lehigh Valley in 24 years and first in makeup in more than 40 years. The 97-minute show was filled with blood spitting, fire breathing, members flying, drum sets levitating, smoke, sparks, explosions and the biggest confetti shower the Lehigh Valley has likely seen. And, oh, yeah, music. And surprisingly good music.
9. Sugarland and Little Big Town, 2011.
Just three weeks after Sugarland narrowly missed a stage collapse that killed seven people at Indiana State Fair, the hit country duo played with less equipment but managed to set a fair attendance record in the process — 10,641 for a reserved-seat show. Sugarland’s music was so well performed that half of the 18 songs that filled the 85-minute show could have been the highlight at any other concert.
8. Keith Urban and Kris Allen, 2010.
For an hour and 40 minutes, country superstar Keith Urban, then near the top of his popularity, kept the audience enrapt with just his voice and guitar. Yes, Urban had a three-piece band and his stage had a huge video screen, but it’s not likely the crowd paid any attention to it while Urban was singing. He was that engaging. Through 17 songs, he sang loose and with abandon, soft and sensitive, and fast and fun. "American Idol" winner Kris Allen opened.
7. Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan, 2012.
Aldean, then near the top of his popularity, played a virtual greatest-hits set — all of the 16 songs he played were Top 10 hits except two — and showed how he brought genuine country back to a genre that in recent years had been lost in pop and tween-girl songs. He also broke Allentown Fair’s all-time box office gate receipts record at the time — pulling in $858,391. Opener Bryan also was near the top. He, too, played all eight of the Top 10 hits he had then, and headlined the fair the next year.
6. Jimmy Eat World and My Chemical Romance, 2002.
Jimmy Eat World was the first "adult" band to which my daughter introduced me (there would be many more). And in the fair's cool night air, Jimmy Eat World’s songs seemed to resonate beyond what they even normally do, with the crowd singing back when singer Jim Adkins sang, in “Sweetness”: “If you’re listening/sing it back.” Opening was a neophyte New Jersey band called My Chemical Romance in its first gig before a large crowd — 6,200. Guitarist Frank Iero later said it helped persuade the band it could make it in music. Four years later, with its quadruple-platinum "The Black Parade" album pending, it was set to headline, but canceled.
5. Rush, 2010.
This show was so good it was almost one for the ages. In nearly 2 1/2 hours of music, the Canadian trio played 25 songs, including the entire album “Moving Pictures” sequentially.
4. Britney Spears and 98°, 1999.
The aforementioned Britney Spears show was a great example of Allentown Fair's ability to catch stars at their absolute peak. It happened with others — Tim McGraw, Backstreet Boys and Jonas Brothers (more about that later). But by the time she played the fair, Spears's album was the top-selling disc by a teen-age female artist ever. The crowd screamed for just about everything Spears did: when she danced, when she spoke and when she started nearly every song, from the opening “(You Drive Me) Crazy” to the encore, of course, ” … Baby One More Time.” But 98° also was great, with their broader appeal. Its hit “The Hardest Thing” also a Billboard chart-topper.
3. Toby Keith, 2021.
In a world that at the time was ravaged by COVID-19 and America fumbling through the withdrawal from the war started by 9/11, Keith’s concert to open the return of Allentown Fair’s grandstand after a year off because of coronavirus seemed particularly poignant. It helped that the then-60-year-old Keith’s performance seemed as if he felt it, too. In a 20-song, hour-and-40-minute show, Keith’s enthusiasm and intensity seemed stronger than ever. The perfect show for the time.
2. Jonas Brothers, 2008.
Hear me out: The family boy band was at its absolute peak when it played the fair — it had sold out Camden's 30,000-capacity Tweeter Center (now Freedom Mortgage Pavilion) days before. But the Allentown show also was good: with earnestness and energy galore, they were surprisingly good musicians and had a bunch of popular songs, too. The fact that, 17 years later, they just sold out Hersheypark Stadium should tell you there's something there. And the fair caught it at the perfect time.
1. Blink 182, 2001.
It was all the small things that made this a great show. Another band near its peak, and with a massive crowd of almost 12,000 that had energy and was engaged as much as any crowd I've ever seen. Halfway through the first song, a half-dozen people were crowd-surfing. And the band was on: Funny, furious, full of great songs (19 of them). And bassist Mark Hoppus even donned a traffic vest and worked in the parking lot before the show.
Honorable mention:
John Mayer, 2017.
With a solo acoustic, slow and emphatic “Your Body is a Wonderland,” the slow burn that was Mayer’s show became a roaring flame, warming the audience and glowing in the comfortable breeze to open the grandstand that year. Mayer, in a headband scarf and denim shirt and jeans, was mellow and affable throughout the 19-song show lasting just over two hours.
John Mellencamp, 2017.
It’s hard to say whether Mellencamp, after a career of more than 40 years and then at age 65, still was, as he sang in his song "Cherry Bomb," improving, but his concert showed his performance skills still were great, and his music as relevant as ever — perhaps even more so in troubled times and to an audience that also no longer was young.
Zac Brown Band, 2013.
Another act the fair got at its peak. Zac Brown Band’s show was cut in half by a lightning storm, but it still packed in more than many acts do in a full show. The band was country, but also adept at rocking, and even played a four-song acoustic mini-set.
Def Leppard, 2015.
It’s cliché to say a band turned back the clock with a performance, and that’s not exactly what Def Leppard did. Rather, the band played a new incarnation of its heyday that was matured, much as its audience was — even getting better in some ways.
What were some of your favorite shows?
