Community Corner

How Not to Get Arrested at Musikfest

Bethlehem Police offer practical advice on how to avoid a trip to jail during the festival.

Don’t fight, don’t vomit, pass out or stagger down the street and don’t drink if you are under 21.

That is a very brief and simple summary of “How Not to Get Arrested at Musikfest,” a guide the Bethlehem Police Department published on its blog a year ago.

On Friday, the department Tweeted a reminder about the guide, informing ‘festers that the same set of rules more or less apply in 2013.

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More Musikfest tips:

There are “in the neighborhood” of 75 arrests every year at Musikfest, police said.

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“Even in the worst case scenario, we arrest approximately 0.009% of the people who attend the festival each year,” the blog says.

“Needless to say, your behavior has to stand out from the crowd in order for you to be arrested during the festival. We are very tolerant of a lot of bad behavior that would normally get you arrested in Bethlehem.”

Let’s take, for example, the open beverage container law, which forbids people from carrying open containers of alcohol in a public place.

“This ordinance is not in effect at a location for which a special occasion permit has been issued by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (read: Musikfest),” police wrote. 

“The permitted area only encompasses the actual Musikfest areas on the north side and the south side. While the current laws do not allow for anyone to carry an open container of alcohol outside of the Musikfest venues, we have not and will not enforce the law within a reasonable area outside of Musikfest.”

In short, carrying your Musikfest mug on a city street is not going to get you arrested.

The three most common infractions at Musikfest, police said, are disorderly conduct (fighting), underage drinking and public drunkenness (“usually for people who are passed out, vomiting, or who can barely walk”).


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