Musikfest Today: Five Things to Know

Good morning, Bethlehem. Today is Friday, August 5, 2011. Here comes the weekend. Here comes Musikfest.

1. The king of all festivals in the Lehigh Valley gets under way when Jolly Joe Timmer plays the first Festplatz polka at 5 p.m. Simultaneously, an act known as Tim & Jules will start playing their brand of blues, pop and jazz at the Air Products Town Square, launching a new era of ‘festing on both sides of the Lehigh River. The official opening ceremonies are slated for 7 p.m. at their traditional Festplatz home.
2. For the duration of the festival, our daily Five Things to Know column will be almost exclusively ‘fest-focused. Hence, the temporary name change. You can also look to our site to find tips on having a hassle-free good time at the festival. We’re calling it The Patch Musikfest Users Guide. The first installment will lay out some of the new features of this year’s festival. Later, we’ll have installments on what to do with the kids at the festival, how to deal with parking and traffic and a classical music fan's guide to Musikfest.
3. If you want a small preview of some of what’s to come, tune in to the Today Show this morning on NBC. Maroon 5, who will play the Sands Steel Stage on Saturday night, plays the Toyota Concert Series this morning. The Morning Call is reporting that the band’s Musikfest show has already sold more tickets than any concert in festival history – now less than 300 seats short of a sellout at the new SouthSide main stage, which has a seating capacity of 7,200, 700 more than the old stage on Sand Island. So if you want to see them live in Bethlehem, and you don't already have tickets, your window is closing fast.
4. Hard rock megastars Stone Temple Pilots is the Sands Steel Stage headliner tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available for that show and for the South Carolina band Needtobreathe at the Musikfest Café, also at 7 p.m.
5. Day One provides yours truly with one of the toughest concert choices of the whole festival. Rockabilly legend Bill Kirchen – formerly of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen – plays the new Americaplatz at 9 p.m. opposite blues virtuoso singer/songwriters Peter Karp and Sue Foley at Liederplatz. I saw Karp and Foley play a killer show at in June. But right now, I lean toward Kirchen. Either way, you just can’t go wrong.