After more than two years of planning, Touchstone Theatre’s 10-day Festival UnBound, a community convergence featuring more than 20 free and ticketed events, is Oct. 4 - 13, throughout the Lehigh Valley but primarily in the City of Bethlehem.

Festival UnBound is intended to use art to spark conversation about how the city has changed in the 20 years since the closing of Bethlehem Steel Corp.’s southside Bethlehem plant and to imagine the future now that the Lehigh Valley is “unbound” from The Steel.

The festival, organized in collaboration with the City of Bethlehem, local African American and Latino communities, educational institutions such as the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts and Moravian College, and area steelworkers and other residents, includes nine pieces of original theater by local, national, and internationally-known artists; music; visual art; parades; youth activities; street performances, and forums for conversation.

Events are indoors and outdoors at venues such as Touchstone Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center, Charles A. Brown Ice House, Bethlehem Area Public Library, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, South Bethlehem Greenway, and Payrow Plaza. About half of the events require tickets. Many are free.