Arts & Culture

Jerry Blavat was known as “The Geator” during an eight-decade career as one of the Philadelphia-area’s best known disc jockeys and who had strong ties to the Lehigh Valley.

This week, the LehighValleyNews.com digital desk handpicked three events for you to enjoy, including Disney On Ice, Drive-In Double Feature and Hellertown - Lower Saucon Restaurant Week.

The city's first major running festival since Runner's World's in 2019 will include a 5K, 10K and half-marathon.

Country music star Walker Hayes will perform at Musikfest on Aug. 7, it was announced.

Once a nationally touring musician, the alt-folk artist found a home and contentment here in the Lehigh Valley's original music scene, which he said supports him and other artists like no other outside major cities. His new show traces his path.

The Allentown Art Museum hosted performances celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Sunday, setting alongside its works by Black artists.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day has become a day of service each year, as people come together to take action and make their communities better. Here are volunteer opportunities and events taking place in the Lehigh Valley.

Celebrations are set to take place throughout the Lehigh Valley while volunteer efforts focus on forming an ongoing connection with the community.

Nkasso, a West African family-owned eatery, held a ribbon-cutting and grand opening on Friday at 44 N. 8th Street in Allentown. It offers bissap, a drink made out of the flowers of the Roselle plant (a variety of Hibiscus), along with other cultural staples.

This week, the LehighValleyNews.com digital desk handpicked three events for you to enjoy, including Easton Restaurant Week, the 'Of Portraiture & Polio' exhibition and Positively Picturesque.

David Archuleta is set to perform at Allentown Fair at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30. He will open for hit a cappella group Pentatonix at the fair's grandstand.

At the Allentown Fair grandstand on Thursday, the hyperactivity was dialed back a measure for Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour, and the kids — who made up about half the audience of perhaps 3,000 — were at least exposed to learning.

A pack of wolves will appear at the Allentown Fair as part of the free entertainment. One of the wolves will meet attendees. A tour of their den is also scheduled.

Attendees at the Great Allentown Fair were entertained by two trampoline artists who performed high-flying acrobatics outside the Agri-Plex complex on Thursday.

The crowd at Allentown Fair for Cheap Trick and Blue Oyster Cult was there to hear the hits of their youth and — for the most part — got what they wanted.

For the first time, Robbie Furman will showcase his work at the Allentown Fair.

The oppressive heat did not deter folks from making their way to the 172nd Great Allentown Fair at the Allentown Fairgrounds on Wednesday. Great food and drinks, amusement park rides and a variety of events will take place at the fair through Monday, Sept. 2.

The Lehigh Valley's newest bagel shop is officially in full swing, holding its grand opening Wednesday Aug. 28. Customers have continuously raved about the bagel spot since its soft opening mid-July.

Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour hits the grandstand stage at Allentown Fair at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29. Tickets, at $30 each, remain available at the fair website.

Nearly 50 years later, Blue Öyster Cult still is performing, and this year even released "Ghost Stories," its first album of new material in four years and only second in 23 years. The group also will open for fellow 1970s rockers Cheap Trick as the grandstand feature for opening night at Allentown Fair at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28.

The wartime lost portrait by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, entitled "Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony," has hung at the Allentown Art Museum since 1961.

Bethlehem's SouthSide Arts District has joined with the city and Wawa stores to create what it calls a "Gateway sign" — "a vibrant public art piece that enhances the entrance between Route 412 and SouthSide downtown."