The Weather: This might turn out to be the best weather day of the festival. The National Weather Service says it will be sunny, with a high temperature of 88 degrees. It will be clear at night with a low of 66.
The Headliner: Starting out in the underground punk rock scene of Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1980s the Goo Goo Dolls catapulted to superstardom in 1998 with the single Iris. That was the first of the band’s 14 Top Ten singles. Tickets at $49 and $34 are still available. The gates open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7. The opening act is armless guitar player , a man with an inspirational story who will also join the Goo Goo Dolls on stage for their big hit.
The Highlight: turned Musikfest on its ear during its debut Bethlehem performances at the festival last year. It’s punk rock like you’ve never heard and a marching band like you’ve never seen, with a five-piece percussion corps, seven-piece brass corps with stilt-walkers, dancing girls, flag twirlers, clown antics, and acrobats. The band’s Web site describes their show as "Duke Ellington meets Sgt. Pepper in an international big-top Fantasia." Tonight, M4 -- what many of their devotees call them -- parades from Liederplatz (the courtyard) down Main Street to Banana Island starting at 7 p.m. M4 takes the stage at Volksplatz at 9:30. Repeat performances are planned in South Bethlehem on Wednesday and on the North Side on Thursday.
For the Little Ones: The “cool craft” at the Peeps & Company Banana Island Craft Tent has an “outer space” theme. The will also be hosting a used book sale at Banana Island where they will also be raffling off a gift basket and selling handmade eReader, tablet and cell phone cases. Live music by Nina Music, Meg’s Melodies and the Hector Rosado Drum Workshop.
The Classical Musikfest: Classical guitar duo Duo SF play at in the Vesper Concert Series at 5 p.m. In the Chamber Series, hear the haunting shakuhachi, the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, at 7:30 p.m. with Bamboo 2 at the .
Mary Ellen’s Celtic Corner: Seamus Kennedy, an Irish folk singer, comedian and writer, is on the Volksplatz stage from 3 to 5:30 p.m.
The Best of the Free Platzes: Big Sam’s Funky Nation (Volksplatz, 7:30 p.m.) is led by New Orleans trombonist Big Sam Williams – a member of the famed Dirty Dozen Brass Band and a cast member on HBO’s Treme, a series which documents New Orleanians trying to rebuild their lives after Katrina. Genuine Crescent City jazz royalty, his great-grandfather was Buddy Bolden, the man many credit with being the inventor of jazz music at the turn of the 20th Century; Lizanne Knott, a veteran of the Philadelphia folk music scene, a favorite of WXPN and a past visitor to , plays a 40-minute set at Lyrikplatz in the Frank Banko Alehouse Theater in at 8 p.m.; It just wouldn’t be Musikfest unless former Mayor Don Cunningham (Liederplatz, 9 p.m.) and his good rocking cover band – now known as the Associates – play a show.
