BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Welcome to LehighValleyNew.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 second official day of Musikfest 2024, Saturday, Aug. 3:
Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, noon, Festplatz
In its formative years, Musikfest leaned heavily on polka and Bethlehem's historic German connection. There's little left of the genre at the festival these days, but it's captured one of polka's biggest acts this year. With 18 Grammy Awards (out of 24 nominations), trumpeter Sturr is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and won more than any other polka artist.
The Arcadian Wild, 6:30 p.m. Zinzenplatz
The four-piece indie folk/pop group from Nashville blends elements of progressive bluegrass, folk and formal vocal music, with fiddle player Bailey Warren sometimes sounding like bluegrass queen Alison Krauss. "Another beautiful music group," ArtsQuest Chief Programming Officer Patrick Brogan said. And if you're a fan of Grammy Award-winning indie-folk electronica artist Sufjan Stevens, Brogan said, "this is a band for you to check out. Beautiful vocal set across a soundscape of melody," with some songs more than 10 minutes long.
Metalachi, 7:30 p.m., Americaplatz
"Metalachi is its own thing — metal music played by a mariachi band," Brogan said. YouTube videos show the group performing faithful renditions of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" that seemingly shouldn't work, but do — and perhaps give even more insight into the music.
Brogan said ArtsQuest had the Los Angeles band on the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks lineup two summers ago, and "I really sat there kind of transfixed for quite some time watching what was in front of me. The beauty of Musikfest is you see things that you're never going to see again in the Lehigh Valley. ... It's a unique thing, and we're thrilled to have it as part of Musikfest."
Magnum, 8 p.m., Musikfest Cafe
Lehigh Valley band Magnum was a big regional original music group in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its singles "Rock and Roll Man" and "Fun and Games" were played on radio station WZZO-FM and the band was voted the No. 1 rock band in the station's poll. They also had a regional hit with the single "Hot Nights," and opened for Hall & Oates, The Ramones and Survivor on its MTV Spring Break show. The band's career now spans 46 years (it will be an anniversary show) and 3,500 concerts.
Bren, 8:30 p.m., Main Street stage
Bethlehem-based indie-rock singer/songwriter Bren performs cathartic pop tunes from a punk heart with a sultry voice. Distilling influences including Elliott Smith, Mitski and The Pixies, Bren's music is filled with sentiments of vulnerability and introspection. A year ago, she released her EP "Too Late for Flowers" with a show at the National Sokols club in Bethlehem.
