BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Welcome toLehighValleyNews.com's Fest in Show, a daily offering of some of the can't-miss acts on the free stages of Bethlehem's Musikfest festival.
This year, 422 acts will play those stages during the festival's 11 days.
Read us daily during Musikfest for suggestions of the best music — and more.
Here are music acts you should see today, the eighth official day of Musikfest 2024, Friday, Aug. 9:
Kendal Conrad, 4:30 p.m. Main Street stage
In 2014, Pottstown-based singer-songwriter Kendal Conrad won an online contest to share Musikfest's main stage for a duet with country music star Keith Urban. Last year at Musikfest, Conrad was back on the main stage, opening for country stars Dan + Shay. In between, she also has opened for Blake Shelton at Dick’s Sporting Goods Open to a crowd of 18,000 and other artists such as Sara Evans, Alabama, Kane Brown, Jerrod Niemann and Dylan Schneider. Her single "Leader of the Pack" has more than 26 million views on TikTok and 1 million plays on SoundCloud. Also, 8 p.m. Aug. 11, Lyrikplatz
Kuf Knotz and Christine Elise, 5:30 p.m. Plaza Tropical
The pairing of a female harp player with an Amy Winehouse voice and a male hip-hop performer might seem incompatible. Instead, it meshes elements that draw listeners from both worlds. "You have this classical harpist with more traditional vocals, and you have a hip-hop/rap/spoken word vocalist and ... man do they marry well together on stage," ArtsQuest Senior Programming Officer Patrick Brogan said. "Anyone can like this show. This is a very accessible I think some people think, 'Oh, I'm not interested in harp music, or I'm not interested in rap music.' And this is not like anything you hear. ... They blend their sounds really, really well together and they have very thoughtful lyrics and messaging behind their music." Also 2 p.m. Aug. 10, Lagerplatz and 7 p.m. Aug. 10, Liederplatz.
Divine Sweater, 7:30 p.m. Americaplatz
Indie quintet Divine Sweater makes dreamy and dynamic music with tight vocal harmonies and a healthy dose of groove. Its two self-released albums, "Human Love" in 2019 and "Divine Sweater Presents: The Ten Year Plan" in 2021 — have been streamed more than 10 million times, and its songs have been featured on several Spotify and Apple Music Editorial Playlists including "Chill Vibes," "Undercurrents" and "Radar US."
Dueto Pandora: Columbian Sounds on Strings, 7:30 p.m. Vesper Concert Series
Amelia López L. is a Colombian violinist and a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Her duet partner Esteban is a mestizo musician from Colombia, dedicated to building community around learning, playing and teaching viola — as well as a doctoral candidate in viola performance. Together, Dueto Pandora performs traditional music from Colombia on strings.
Truth: A Celebration of Jeff Beck, 7:30 p.m. Musikfest Café
Lehigh Valley resident Lou Franco is a veteran guitarist who was in the band Pretty Poison, known for its 1987 Top 10 hit "Catch Me (I'm Falling)" and 1984 Top 15 Dance Club hit "Nighttime," and played with Robert Hazard, who in 1982 had the hit "Escalator of Life" and who wrote Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." That surely qualifies Franco to a lead a tribute to Jeff Beck, the influential guitarist who played in The Yardbirds and his own Jeff Beck Group and who Rolling Stone magazine ranks in the Top 5 guitarists of all time. One of the most intriguing aspects is that, despite his fame, there apparently were no tribute bands to Beck, who died in 2023.
