Arts & Culture

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.

Keith Urban at the Allentown Fair grandstand played an astounding 13 gold or platinum hits — or was it 16? — on a night that cooled off a "Long Hot Summer" day.

The Great Allentown Fair's final day is Monday. Sunday hosted the Barnyard Olympics, a homemade chocolate cake competition and a Keith Urban concert.

The team from LehighValleyNews.com lost — just barely — to a trash-talking team of 'movers and shakers' that included Mayor Matt Tuerk and County Executive Phillips J. Armstrong.

The rapper and social media sensation performed his hits "Mr. Clean" and "Betty (Get Money)" on Saturday night at the Allentown Fair grandstand.

Davenport's spin on Christmas pudding wowed the judges at the competition, which is part of the fair's farm-to-table series.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

Early-aught hip-hop hitmakers Nelly and Chingy performed Friday at third night of the Allentown Fair grandstand.

Yung Gravy on Saturday night brings his maddeningly catchy — but absurdist — raps about wooing your girlfriends ("Oops!") and your moms ("Betty (Get Money)" and "Mr. Clean") to Allentown Fair's grandstand.

Lehigh County 4-H Livestock Club members are the biggest winners at the Great Allentown Fair, which runs through Labor Day on Monday.

Swan Lake, written 150 years ago by Russian composer Tchaikovsky and one of the most popular ballets of all time, will return to the theater at 2 p.m. Oct. 26. And Let’s Sing Taylor — A Live Band Experience Celebrating Taylor Swift, which calls itself “the ultimate tribute to the music of Taylor Swift,” will perform at the center at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20. And it will include a tribute to an even more recent hitmaker — Olivia Rodrigo.

Dylan Scott will perform Sept. 12 as the final show for the Sounds of Summer concert series. And Led Zeppelin tribute band Get the Led Out is set to perform Aug. 29.

Gilberto Santa Rosa, nicknamed "El Caballero de la Salsa" (The Gentleman of Salsa)," will perform on the festival's main Steel Stage at 7 p.m. Aug. 7.

Hundreds of students attending the event aimed to give students a chance to connect with ArtsQuest’s employees in the music programming, production, and other arts nonprofit sectors.

J&J Demolition Derby, a Labor Day mainstay at Allentown Fairgrounds, will return for its closing-night grandstand entertainment offering at 5 p.m. Sept. 1, the fair announced Monday.

The projects were among 81 community projects across Pennsylvania for which Gov. Josh Shapiro announced grants through the Main Street Matters program.

Chris Cagle, who had the No. 1 hit "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out" in 2001, and topped the Country Albums chart with his self-titled disc in 2003, will perform at 8 p.m. June 20.

The Mexican nonprofit dance company, founded in New York City in 2003, offers educational cultural programming for audiences of all ages and puts on dance performances globally.

Pretty Poison plays a free show from 7-11 p.m. today, April 4, at Wind Creek Casino's Molten Lounge.

The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley has been providing programs for the community since 1968. Wednesday, the group announced its new partnership with the Latino Leadership Alliance.

If Mother Nature has anything to say about it, this could be an abbreviated peak bloom for the cherry blossoms in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas.

Fiddler is among 50 finalists in the national dance fellowship that celebrates diversity and inclusion.