Music

Cheap Trick, which was to be the opener for a show by rock band Heart, was announced Friday as the replacement for Heart as grandstand opening-night headliner at 7 p.m. Aug. 28. It will be joined for the show by another 1970s hit rock group — Blue Oyster Cult, best known for its 1976 hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

It's been two weeks since rock band Heart canceled its opening-night headline concert at Allentown Fair, and it looks like the fair is set to announce a replacement.

For the first time, the two-day festival will feature a barbecue competition, along with 11 blues performers. It will take place Friday, July 19 and Saturday, July 20 at SteelStacks.

Through this month, the symphony is offering a 10% discount on tickets to its popular Holiday Pops concert on Dec. 21 and Repertory Dance Theatre's "Nutcracker" on Dec. 7-8, both at Miller Symphony Hall at 23 S. 6th St., Allentown.

Michael W. Smith, who has won three Grammy Awards and 45 Dove Awards and has been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21.

ArtsQuest is holding a one-day sale that eliminates those pesky price-pumping fees on eight of the 11 headline shows at the SteelStage venue. But the sale ends at 11:59 p.m. today, July 12.

The 37th Annual Blueberry Festival runs Saturday and Sunday, with live music, food, kids activities, outdoor games, and of course, blueberries. New this year is the Blueberry Tavern Tent, serving centuries-old tipples for tasting and taking.

The Dickies and The Queers will perform at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 at Maingate Nightclub, 448 N. 17th St. Allentown.

South African rockers Seether, who had the chart-topping songs “Broken (with Amy Lee),” “Remedy,” “Fake It” and “Country Song,” will team up with Skillet, which has had 25 Top 10 Christian chart singles, 12 of which went gold or platinum, to play the event center at 6 p.m. Sept. 21.

Brett Scallions, the original singer of 1990s hit band Fuel, will perform an acoustic solo show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 13, at Signature Event Center, 137 Erin Lane, Brodheadsville. Tickets, at $30, remain available at www.TicketWeb.com.

La Santa Cecilia, which in 2014 won the Grammy for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album and has been nominated twice, will perform at Levitt SteelStacks at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26.

The 1982 hit includes the lyrics, “Well, we’re livin’ here in Allentown/And they’re closin’ all the factories down” – marking the city a symbol of the American rust belt. Some people who live in Allentown say it's not fair and not true.

Soviet-born Israeli-American classical pianist Yefim Bronfman, whose works have won a Grammy Award and also appeared in Disney films, will open the 73rd season of Allentown’s Miller Symphony Hall.

28 string musicians, most in middle school or younger, performed in Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall Sunday, as part of the Allentown orchestra's education program.

The concert will feature music from local composers and presented by a string quartet.

The two-day, family-friendly festival features lectures from authors, children's story-hours, a jazz brunch and movie night.

One Earth ReggaeFest will offer a dozen reggae and related musical acts on two outdoor stages over 12 hours on July 12 on the SteelStacks campus. The hours will be noon to midnight.

The Allentown Symphony Orchestra is gearing up to present "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" in a concert with a screening of the complete film.

Keith Sweat, a leading force in the New Jack Swing movement, will headline the main Steel Stage at the massive music festival in downtown and South Side Bethlehem at 7 p.m. Aug. 8.

Grammy Award-winning soft rock group Train, known for the hits "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)," "Hey Soul Sister" and "Drive By," will headline the main stage on the final night of Bethlehem's Musikfest festival in August, it was announced Monday.

Boz Scaggs, whose 1976 album “Silk Degrees” went five times platinum with the blues-rock hits “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle,” will play Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 21.

Musician James Casey talks to a Lehigh Valley company about his fight with colon cancer. He is using his platform to tell others about the importance of getting screened.