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.

An art show centered around mental health and disabilities is opening in an unlikely place. Midnight Gallery is in the showroom of Vollux Autowerks, a car repair and diagnostics shop in Lehigh County.

Iron Menace made its first successful test run on Wednesday at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, making a slow ascent before the ride plummeted 95-degrees from 160 feet.

The three-hour festival highlights 12 short films by students from the university's film and television department.

More than a dozen musical acts and food and craft vendors will be spread across the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem for the festival featuring Jamaican vibes. It's set for Saturday, July 6.

Fraleigh will discuss her latest exhibition, "Threaded with moonlight," on Saturday, March 23.

The Lehigh Valley Book Festival's 5th iteration will take place over five days, starting Wednesday March 20.

Lehigh Valley native Daniel Roebuck has a part in the ABC show "9-1-1," whose new season began last week and continues Thursday.

More than 2,000 marchers joined Allentown's St. Patrick's Day parade Sunday, an annual tradition celebrating the region's Irish culture. “It’s a great way to bring the community together,” said one of the parade-goers.

Muses at the Ice House will be from 4-9 p.m. April 6 at Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem.

“Ireland’s famous export is its people, but obviously our culture. This time of year everybody wants to be Irish,” said Neville Gardner, owner of McCarthy's Red Stag Pub and Whiskey Bar in Bethlehem.

It's been a wonderfully warm week, so you might be hankering for some ice cream. Fortunately, these Lehigh Valley sweets shops have St. Patrick's Day themed frosty desserts that are perfect for this time of year.

A St. Patrick’s Day Ceremony/Irish Culture Celebration on Friday at Payrow Plaza in Bethlehem kicked off the St. Patrick's Day weekend in the Lehigh Valley.