A Celebration of Bacon at SteelStacks: Your Weekend

Everything tastes better with bacon. Especially bacon.

Bacon lovers will unite at the Musikfest Café at SteelStacks on Sunday for Bacontopia: A Celebration of Bacon.

At Bacontopia, bacon aficionados will enjoy a sizzling Sunday filled with delicious bacon dishes, including Sweet & Spicy Roasted Bacon, Bacon Fries, Bacon Breakfast Napoleon, Cream of Bacon Soup, Bacon Burger Sliders and Spicy Pork Belly. For those with a sweet tooth, there will even be Bacon Lollipops, Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Icing and a decadent Dark Chocolate & Bacon Swirl Ice Cream.

Tony Page and Rooster Street Provisions, a Lancaster County butcher, will be on hand to offer bacon and pork products, as well as advice and recipes for preparing these meats, while D.G. Yuengling & Son brewmaster John Callahan will offer a presentation on pairing Yuengling beers with bacon and pork dishes.

The afternoon will also include "soul jazz" music by Hambone Relay, plus pigskin games shown on the Musikfest Cafe's TV screens. All attendees will receive a Bacontopia Passport they can have stamped each time they sample a bacon dish, and everyone who samples all 10 offerings will be entered into a drawing to win Musikfest Cafe concert tickets.

It all gets under way at 1 p.m. and will wrap up by 4. Tickets for the event, a fundraiser for ArtsQuest arts education programming, are $35 and $30 for ArtsQuest members—a bacon … bargain.

What else is going on in and near Bethlehem this weekend?

• While it may seem a bit early to think about the holiday season, it is never too early to start thinking about others. The Salvation Army of the Lehigh Valley hosts its at the annual Red Kettle Kick-Off in the Fowler Blast Furnace Room of the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks beginning at 7 p.m. Friday. Listen to the music of Craig Thatcher and Nyke Van Wyk. There will also be savory food, a candy corner, and the inspiring story-telling of novelist, screenwriter, and director, Todd Komarnicki (best known for co-producing the Christmas favorite, Elf). Tickets are $75 with all proceeds going to support the work of The Salvation Army of the Lehigh Valley. To attend, please call 610-432-0129 or register online at www.lehighvalley.salvationarmypa.org.

• Five-time GRAMMY-winner, platinum recording artist and Grand Ole Opry star Marty Stuart teams up with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, Friday night at 7:30 in the Musikfest Café. Tickets are $42 and $54.

• The Chicago based folk duo of Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso—who call themselves Small Potatoes—say it has taken them years of careful indecision to develop a repertoire they describe as "Celtic to Cowboy." Hear them at Godfrey Daniels at 8 p.m. Friday. Admission is $17.50.

• Join Urology Specialists of the Lehigh Valley and ZERO – The End of Prostate Cancer, on Saturday at 9 a.m. at SteelStacks. The 5K Run/Walk  and 1 Mile Fun Run are part of the ZERO Prostate Cancer Challenge, America’s premier men’s health event series, taking place in more than three-dozen cities in 2013. Funds raised from the ZERO Prostate Cancer Run help protect and grow prostate cancer research funding, promote awareness and education efforts, and support free testing. Registration for the 5K Run/Walk is $35. Registration for the 1 Mile Fun Run is $20. For more information, visit www.zeroprostatecancerrun.org/lehighvalley.

• Lehigh Valley Health Network will again this year give out free flu vaccinations at two community drive-through sessions. The first will be at Dorney Park in South Whitehall, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and the second will be at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. You don’t have to bring non-perishable food items to donate to get your free vaccine, but all donations will be appreciated and will help the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank, Allentown Rescue Mission, Transitional Living Center Program and the AIDS Activities Office food pantry.

• Frankie Valli, the legendary frontman of the 1960s group The Four Seasons, will sing his hits at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are from $59.50 to $125.

• The Whiskeyhickon Boys bring their high-energy, eclectic musical style to Godfrey Daniels at 8 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $15.50.

• A hit in Chicago and New York, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 50 Shades! The Musical comes to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 7 p.m. Sunday. The parody opens with a ladies book club deciding to read Fifty Shades of Grey. Through their interpretation of the novel, the audience is led on an uproarious roller coaster ride of this unlikely bestseller. The show is full of dance numbers and original songs delivered with a live, on-stage band. Tickets are from $25 to $55.