Arts & Culture

With support from Unity Bank and organizers Greater Easton Development Partnership and the Easton Tea Dance, Easton will host its first-ever Pride celebration on June 1, 2025.

The PA Shakespeare Festival, celebrating its 34th season, will hold its Play On! community tour beginning on Friday, May 30, at Emmaus Public Library. The free show will also take place at the National Museum of Industrial History and the Allentown Public Library.

Shaun Cassidy, known for 1970s chart-topping gold pop hits "That's Rock 'n' Roll," "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Hey Deanie," will perform at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26.

The Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Regional Music Awards, a new organization, will hold its inaugural presentation Dec. 7 at Emmaus Theatre.

Start Making Sense, a Talking Heads tribute band with singer Jon Braun assuming the role of frontman David Byrne, will perform the first day of Garlic Fest, set for Oct. 4-5 in Downtown Easton.

The arts and music extravaganza will run from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 24, and Sunday, May 25. New attractions this year include a drone show on Sunday night.

Nazareth Area High School's production won five Freddy Awards — including Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical — at the ceremony Thursday night at Easton's State Theatre.

The ninth annual Good Neighbor Awards recipients were Darian Colbert and Yolanda Colbert, Ilene Hochberg Wood and Judith A. Harris. The ceremony was held at the Univest Public Media Center, home to Lehigh Valley Public Media, which consists of PBS39, 91.3 WLVR Radio and LehighValleyNews.com.

ArtsQuest has announced the lineup for its free festival that celebrates the musical genre founded in Jamaica, which will return to the SteelStacks campus for a fourth year, from noon to midnight July 5.

Jerry Cantrell, who founded the band Alice in Chains, will perform a solo concert at 7 p.m. Sept. 2 at Archer Music Hall.

The owner of Smartivities Showcase has opened a second location at the Promenade Saucon Valley.

The restaurant changed hands and its name around two years ago. Now, it's set to soon return to what the community last knew it as: Spiros Restaurant.

The event is organized by Interlace Cultural y Desarrollo Integral de Lehigh Valley in partnership with the Baum Art School and the City of Allentown.

Drake Bell, who is best known for his starring roles on Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show” with Amanda Bynes from 1999-02, and “Drake & Josh” from 2004-07, will perform at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 at Signature Event Center, 137 Erin Lane, Brodheadsville.

11Fest will be from 5-11 p.m. Nov. 11 (11/11) inside the Main Library at 11 W. Church St., Bethlehem.

A four-man crew has been making haste since Oct. 1 in putting up the decorations, with most of the wreaths, ribbons, light wraps, trees and stars currently hanging on light poles above streets in South Bethlehem and along the city’s bridges.

The Indoor Auto Racing Series, in which the cars compete on the concrete floor, will drive into the area Jan. 3-4 for the ninth running of the Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Races.

The festival, which features which retailers, artisans and food in heated tents on the SteelStacks campus, will open for its 32nd year on the weekend of Nov. 15.

Easton's Frank Pintabone announced Wednesday that a Hispanic Resource Day, catering to the needs of the city's Hispanic population, will be hosted at the Easton Area Community Center in November.

About 48,000 people attended the two-weekend Oktoberfest festival Oct. 4-6 and 11-13, ArtsQuest said.

The book festival will feature workshops, poetry, lectures by authors and discussions on the environment, LGBTQ rights, diversity and the steel industry. It runs through Sunday at various locations in the city.

Tribute shows to the music of Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston and Michael Bublé have been announced for the event center. So is rising comedian Sam Morril.