Community Corner

Your Weekend: Vegans, Ghost Hunters Invade Bethlehem

Parafest 2013 takes over the Sands Event Center all weekend, while VegFest hits the South Bethlehem Greenway on Saturday.

If you are a vegetarian who is into ghosts, you couldn’t be in a better spot than Bethlehem this weekend as Parafest and VegFest both come to town. 

The Sands Bethlehem Event Center will be a playground for fans of the supernatural, the paranormal, horror and things that are just plain weird.

Parafest 2013 will set up camp from Friday through Sunday. The weekend will feature celebrity guest speakers, vendors, exhibits and film screenings.

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Those scheduled to make appearances include actors Danny Glover, Ernie Hudson, Tony Todd, Lisa Loring and some cast members from the hit HBO show True Blood.

Scheduled reality stars include the Ghost Hunters from TAPS and Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn from the SyFy Channel show Oddities.

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Among the highlights of the weekend will be yet another investigation of the haunted Sun Inn on Main Street with Mark and Debby Constantino of the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures.

Festival hours run from noon to 10 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. General admission tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children. Access to celebrity seminars, panels and movie screenings cost an additional $25 per day. 

Whether you are a vegan, a vegetarian or just want to add more vegetables into your diet, you may want to spend part of your Saturday at Bethlehem VegFest, the third annual street festival of all things vegan.

The festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. along the South Bethlehem Greenway, the rail to trail park. The corner of New Street and Mechanic Street will be a good place to start.

There will be guest speakers on the vegan lifestyle and holistic medicine, cooking demonstrations and live music. Talk to sustainable food vendors, try free samples, get show special discounts and find out where to find products year-round.

Here are some other things happening in Bethlehem this weekend:

  • Bluesman Tee Dee Young visits the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks for a free show at 7 p.m. Friday. C.C. Coletti and Experience Janis, a Janis Joplin tribute band, comes to the Levitt at 7 p.m. Saturday.
  • Learn about the ecosystems and history of Island Park—two Lehigh River islands between Freemansburg and Easton that are only accessible by boat in a tour led by the Wildlands Conservancy. Tour starts from the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission Rt. 33 Boat Launch. Fee is $25.
  • PBS39 Family Fun Day, which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the station’s SteelStacks headquarters, features station tours, storytelling, Elmo scavenger hunt, moon bounces, and an interactive family concert by the Grammy Award-winning Steve Pullara and His Cool Beans Band at noon. All activities, including the concert, are free and open to the public.
  • Historic Bethlehem Partnership’s monthly Hunt for History program from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday is all about marbleized paper. In the 17th century travelers to the Middle East and Asia collected examples of marbleized papers and bound them into "books of friendship" In the 18th and 19th centuries the technique for making the papers spread across the Atlantic where they became a popular covering material not only for book covers and end-papers, but also for lining chests, drawers, and bookshelves. Learn techniques of marbleizing. Then make your own marbleized paper and use it to cover your very own book of friendship. FREE for children with paid adult admission of $7 (Limit 2 children per $7)
  • Easton singer-songwriter Brittany Ann is the opening act for fellow singer-songwriter Cary Cooper and her band at Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. Fourth St., at 8 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $17.50.
  • Stand up comedian Doug Benson, best known for his appearances on television shows “Best Week Ever,” and “Last Comic Standing,” performs at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Musikfest Café. Tickets are $29, $24 and $19.
  • The Difference, Air Products' award-winning corporate rock n’ roll band, play its final shows at the Musikfest Café at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets were to be given away for free on a first-come, first serve basis.
  • Muslims For Life host a blood drive in commemoration of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and this year's Boston Marathon bombings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Bethlehem Township Community Center, 2900 Farmersville Road. The goal is to raise 12,000 units of blood.


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