Musikfest concluded its 37th year much like the first one in 1984.

The Danielle Ponder Band performed on the Air Products Town Square at SteelStacks, some of the festival’s most popular food vendors were set up on PNC Plaza and the event closed with a bang as fireworks exploded over Bethlehem.

Musikfest 2020 will go down as one of the most unique and different festivals in ArtsQuest’s history, but also one of the most special.

While we were only able to present a fraction of the traditional festival experience this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fact that were we able to offer anything at all is nothing short of miraculous.

The main reason there was a ‘Musikfest’ is the love and passion our community has for this festival. Musikfest was started 37 years ago at a time when the City of Bethlehem needed a lift, and it was borne on the backs of 300-plus volunteers and a community that came out in droves to support an event it had never heard of just a few months prior.

This year, we saw much of the same. ArtsQuest’s corporate partners and supporting members contacted us early on, asking what they could do to help and how they could support our organization. Our performers wanted to be involved, whether via live shows at Service Electric or streaming sets as part of Virtual Musikfest. And, when we opened the SteelStacks campus on July 31, the community came out for live music, festival food and a small taste of the sights and sounds of the ’fest.

Yes, things were undeniably different this year, with mask wearing, social distancing and safety first and foremost in everyone’s minds. But, we also heard from so many people how thankful they were that there was a Musikfest 2020.

We enjoyed seeing people get up and move to world rhythms as they danced next to their socially distanced tables or on their lined-out squares of the Levitt Pavilion lawn.

We saw people purchasing Aw Shucks corn, Island Noodles and supporting independent businesses that essentially had been closed all summer.

And we heard live music filling the air, bringing smiles to people’s faces under their masks.

Make no mistake about it, by all rights there should not have been a Musikfest this year. The pandemic has altered every aspect of our world, with few industries hit as hard as the live events industry. ArtsQuest has been essentially closed since mid-March, losing 90 percent of its revenue, so presenting a festival in this ‘new normal’ was anything but simple.

This was an event that was as much about supporting local artists and small businesses as it was about bringing our community together through music and the arts. By holding Musikfest 2020, it gave the community the opportunity to support 25 local vendors and 85 paid performing artists. Our residents, as well as fans across the country, also made donations to help sustain ArtsQuest during this crisis so we can resume our regular, year-round programming when safe to do so.

Most importantly, the community came together to highlight everything that makes Musikfest so special and so unique to Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley. There’s a reason there’s no other festival like Musikfest in the nation, and it starts with all of you!

It’s thanks to our city, our 45 corporate partners, 3,300 supporting members, volunteers, artists, performers and, of course, our fans that this festival was possible this year.

Through the generosity of our festival patrons, ArtsQuest also gained much momentum in the One Million Festers Matching Gift Campaign. If you haven’t already done so, we hope you please consider joining us today and help secure ArtsQuest’s future by donating at www.artsquest.org/donate.

We hope that we can all get together safely and in-person next year for a more traditional Musikfest. But, most importantly, we thank everyone in our community for stepping up as you always have to make this one of the best and most well-respected music festivals in the nation.

When we can hold Musikfest once more, what a party it will be. We look forward to the day when we can once again bring one million people to town to showcase the city and the region!

Please know that Musikfest 2020 happened because of all of you. Well done and thank you to everyone.

Signed,

Kassie Hilgert

ArtsQuest President and CEO

Curt Mosel

ArtsQuest Chief Operating Officer

Patrick Brogan

ArtsQuest Chief Programming Officer