The summer of 2018 has been one of unique opportunity for me.  For as long as I can remember, every summer would present itself with various concerts, festivals and outdoor gigs to play. The setting of dusk underneath the bright moon with the warm breeze of the hot summer night is very typical for all the summer gigs I play.  Of course, with the many days of extreme heat this summer, an out-door concert posed to be a bit more challenging!  Nonetheless, the summer concert season was made a little different with a few unique and personal opportunities for me.

In June, my wedding band, Generations (www.vposwing.com) had the privilege of being hired to play for the wedding of Ronnie Lord and Cassy Vash. If you didn’t already know, Cassy was a former student of mine who is currently living in Texas working as an engineer within the highway department system of Texas. She is doing very well and I am very proud of her.  Generations also played for her sister Helen’s wedding in 2014. So, it was a great honor for me to have the chance to play for a family that I am very close with.  As you can see in the photos, her wedding was held at the Loft at Jacks Barn (www.jacksbarn.com) in Hackettstown, NJ. The theme was very rustic and tailored to be very personal to both Cassy and Ronnie.  Since Cassy lives in Texas and is not able to travel to New Jersey that often, the day was even that much more special for the family and everyone involved.  We were part of both the ceremony and reception.  Everyone had a great time and the band had everyone dancing throughout. I am very thankful to Cassy, Ron and their family for allowing us to be a part of their most special day.

If you’ve read any of my past blogs, you maybe aware of the Ken Brader Holiday Brass Quartet that I play with have been playing the national anthem at various events. (www.facebook.com/groups/659018100807942/)  This summer, we were chosen to play at a home game for the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia on June 26.  The chance to play at a major league stadium regardless of who the home team is, presents a great opportunity. But, there is definitely more pressure upon us as 40,000 fans, players, and workers are standing at attention as we play on the field with cameras in our faces as it is being displayed on the big stadium screen. We were blessed with great weather that day and I want to humbly say that we hit a homerun with our performance.  This video was taken by the Phillies staff and they did a great job. (www.phillies.com)

We had two more nice opportunities to play the anthem this summer.  On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3-4, we were asked to perform for the Drum Corps International semifinal performance at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown, PA.  Drum Corps, or DCI for short (www.dci.org) is marching band for those serious students between ages 18-21. They work and travel all over the country all summer long leading up to the finals and championships in mid August.  Those in attendance are musicians and fans of brass music. So, this was a nice chance to play to a crowd who truly enjoy what we do. We also had a chance to again play for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on August 27^th for their final home game before the playoffs begin.  Although not the size of the Phillies stadium, it still is a great place to play and we enjoy every chance we have to play there.  This year, the Iron Pigs had the best record in the league and will be playing Scranton beginning September 5^th in the playoffs. It is a best of 5 series. If they go to a 4^th game, that will be Saturday, September 8^th and we will again be playing for that important game.

I finished up the summer by joining the band once again to be a part of Gloria’s Miami Sound, the best Gloria Estefan Tribute Band in America. (www.facebook.com/gloriasmiamisound/)  Led by the husband and wife team of Nikki Torres and Bill Ciamarelli, this band is awesome and a pleasure to play with. The show was held at the Cold Spring Country Club in Long Island, New York.  A top- notch band comprised of the best New York has to offer, I always enjoy meeting and performing with these musicians. I always look forward to working with Bill and Nikki in this band or their other very popular band New York Minute  (www.facebook.com/NYMinuteBand/) (see photo)

For me, these opportunities paved the way for a nice summer of music and gigs.  I am always glad to play and enjoy the life, but, it adds a special touch when you have some new events to perform helping those you know to share a beautiful moment in their life.  Plus, to be able to share the stage with talented musicians is always a great experience.

In the Fall of 2014 I decided to thoroughly clean out my garage and re-design how it was organized. I got tired of it being messy and knew that I could throw a lot out and make much better use of the space I had.  As this process was happening, I kept seeing the layout in the closet in the garage.  I think the little kid in me woke up again as suddenly an urge was rising to do something with it. At that point, the hobby was re-born within me. Once the garage was ready, I had a place and set-up the layout.  I began learning again about the hobby and the amazing amount of things that had changed in the hobby over the past 20 years. It was fun to go to shows, and see layouts running and feel like a kid again. However, what also had changed in that time was how expensive things could be! Wow!  I had no idea engines could be $300-400! The old recognizable brands of Tyco, Bachmann and Life-Like to name a few had been replaced by Walthers, MTH and Kato.  The inexpensive family sets were now costing upwards of $200.  What hit me right away was there is no way that many families can have it as a hobby to play with anymore.  What family of 4 or 5 can go out and spend $500 for supplies to run a train set or 2 with a nice display and scenery? Hardly anyone. Maybe the brands of the past weren’t the best, but as a kid, you just enjoyed watching the trains run and didn’t care about the brand, you just looked at the painting and decoration on the cars and engines.

What became very apparent to me was that the hobby is time consuming. In today’s society of everything happening fast and needing it now, I don’t see trains as a big draw to kids or millennials.  It doesn’t move fast enough and actually takes artistry and work to make a nice display.  What I did learn was that if you wanted to get more supplies, the most affordable way was to keep an eye out for garage sales or auctions. I discovered www.auctionzip.com for train auctions in my area.  This has actually been a great help.  The past 3 years I have been able to go to a lot of auctions and sales and pick up many great trains, scenery items and displays for a fraction of the cost of buying new.  What I also noticed is that I was probably one of the youngest buyers of trains in these auctions.  I learned that the market for trains was those mid 40’s and up and if you saw a kid at an auction, he probably was there as a tag a long with his grandfather.  The realization that this is no longer a family hobby was very evident. It was more for older men who could absorb the costs because they don’t have to worry about car payments, mortgages or college tuition!

Since 2014, I have enjoyed re-learning the hobby and expanding it with artistry and design. As a creative person, it certainly allows me the chance to develop and expand my creativity to be as expansive as you would like.  The photos here show my layout from many years ago. There is even one from when I was in the newspaper as my layout had been featured since it was so unique.  Over the next weeks, I will be exploring with you in more blog posts my layout and what I changed and re-built along with showing you more photos and video.  Stay tuned… More to come from Vince’s Railroad Depot!

Spring Coffee House

A BIG Hit!!

On Saturday, April 28^th, the Bethel Memorial Baptist Church held their second annual Coffee House event in our downstairs multipurpose room.  I am very pleased to say that it was an awesome night and was attended by 150 people!  It far exceeded the amount we had at our initial event in October and I am very happy and thankful for a great night for the church.

As head of the coffee house committee, I am in charge of or have to be a part of just about everything.  But, I welcome the opportunity and am happy with how well everything turned out.  The night featured a diverse line up of entertainment from sacred to secular and even a little rhythm and blues.  Featuring members of our church as well as a few guests, the audience was Blessed with such wonderful talent. I had the privilege of directing the Victory Voices once again as we sang Instrument of Peace and Stand By Me.  Both went well and I am so thankful to the men for giving of their time and talent. We also had a few acts where the musicians took the time to talk about a funny story in their life or to speak about the love of their spouse.  Crooner Joe DeMaio, dedicated the song “Longer”  by Dan Fogelberg to his wife.  However, she was unaware that he was going to sing this as well as walk towards her as he was singing ending with the lyric “I’m so in love, with you” followed by a kiss! How romantic!! Then we had Sam Bodder who grew up with his grandfather singing the very funny song “Pretty Little Dear “ from 1927, which spoke of a gentlemen’s girlfriend who had a very healthy appetite! Considering it was humor of the 20’s, the way he told the story was classic and well loved by the audience.

The highlight of the night was how we ended it.  Advertising in the program as “guests from Chicago” we featured Jeff Barrows and Jerry Crivellaro teaming up to be Jake and Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers to sing Soul Man. Of course, the lyrics were changed a bit to reflect the term Soul Man and to tie-it in with our church. Since no one had any idea this was going to happen, it was a surprise and by far the best moment of the evening. To see two husky guys over 6ft tall moving and dancing around like their fellow mentors was hilarious and awesome.  The fact that this was so unexpected is what really made their act. Yes, they sang well, but, here you have two Board of Trustee Members in a role that you would not expect.  It was priceless.

Similar to our first event, we had plenty of food for everyone. From hoagies and chicken sandwiches to hot pretzels and desserts, there was something for everyone and plenty to go around.  What we did have this year which was really neat was a red carpet style photo booth in our lobby.  Anyone who came in could have their picture taken in front of a classy screen well lit by photography lighting.  We also had plenty of props, both serious and fun, if you wanted to pick up a fake mustache or a pair of funny glasses. Many photos were taken ranging from nice family pics to humorous outtakes.  It was really a nice addition to our event and everyone seemed generally happy to oblige.

It was always my vision to offer an event for the church that can bring people in and create a sense of togetherness, outreach and community all while keeping the focus on the Lord.  I really feel this event accomplished that.  I have seen where some groups will focus solely on witnessing for the Lord to guests before they have even made a connection with them.  For some, this method may work. However, my desire is to bring everyone in to have a fun night and allow them to feel comfortable and at home in our church.  I don’t want anyone to feel like we only wanted them there because we thought we could get them to become members. Not the case at all. If we don’t make personal connections and relationships first, none of that can really happen anyway.  With the entertainment, food, photo booth and general enjoyment of the night, our church is experiencing two things. We are seeing great attendance at our newly discovered social events as well as inviting others and sharing our building, family and fellowship with others.  Since the church never had anything like this, both events have proven that people will come out to socialize with their friends all while realizing we are in church and it is because of the Lord that we are all there!

Hopefully we can keep this moving forward and maybe we can see you at the next one!

The ingredients of these factors always make for a great night and the euphoria of the season is made official by this performance.  But, for this year, the release of the CD more than added a next level of  “coolness” to it.  For many, this was their first time being part of a recorded album.  We all own cd’s and take it for granted, but, when you get to see your name listed on a professionally made cd, there is just something very special about that.  I designed and created the artwork and liner notes for the album and Discmakers from Pennsauken, NJ made them for us. Since I had put this together, I obviously was aware of what it looked like and was used to seeing it.  But, for the members, it was a cool experience for me to see the look of excitement and feeling of accomplishment on many of their faces. As we handed out the cd’s and they finally had a chance to see them for the first time, that was well worth the time and effort in designing this project.   Our CD, REJOICE, was finally available and after so many years, we now have a professional recording that will last forever.  I do believe that many of us DID rejoice that night in celebration of a wonderful event all led by founder and trumpeter Ken Brader.  For without him, none of this would be possible.

Since scheduling in December is never easy, our attendance can vary and usually does.  But, this year was really awesome as we had one of our largest groups ever with 43 people playing!  We had 2 great shows and both Ken I really feel this was one of, if not, the best performance of the group in many years if not ever.  Whether it was the cd or something else, the night was just great for everyone and the sound was awesome.  One thing that made it special for me was the addition of a few long time members who had not played with us in many years due to scheduling and travel.  Paul Chepolis and Eric Martin were former students of Ken’s and had not played in almost 20 years.  When I was in high school, Eric went to rival Easton HS and we spent many years playing together at Christmas time.  I hadn’t seen Eric in many years.  He came up as a surprise to Ken and his parents and it was awesome to see him there.  Paul also went to Easton and is a few years younger than I am, but it was great to have him back and be able to relive and tell stories of the past.  As the eldest member of the group, this opportunity was really good for me. To be able to not just see longtime friends but also perform with them was a great feeling.

I am very thankful to everyone who played and helped to make this night a great success.  Ken was so overjoyed and full of emotion that this was an even greater night for him.  With all the health issues that Ken is dealing with, it is such a good feeling to see him have such a rewarding night and a chance to lead again.

In case you are not familiar with the festival, it was started to give local church choirs an opportunity to come together to share their talents with each other all while glorifying the word of the Lord.  It is usually held the Sunday before Thanksgiving. A free will offering is taken which benefits ProJeCt of Easton.  P of E is an interfaith initiative in downtown Easton that offers emergency assistance, a food program, community supportive services, and educational programs to over 5,000 disadvantaged children and adults each year. Information on ProJeCt can be found at http://www.projecteaston.org.   It is a great organization and I am happy to say that this year’s donation from the festival was over $1000.00.  Since it is called an interfaith festival, the choirs come from protestant and Catholic Churches, a Jewish Temple and this year there was a Muslim group that performed.  In addition to The Victory Voices, the festival was represented by the following church choirs:  St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, First United Church of Christ, Trinity Episcopal Church, Temple Covenant of Peace, Lehigh Dialogue Center, St. John’s UCC of Farmersville, and the host church, St. Jane Frances de Chantal Roman Catholic Church of Easton.  We came together at the end to perform two selections together. They were “I Choose Love” by Mark Miller and “American The Beautiful”.  Having over 100 voices really made the conclusion of the festival sound tremendous.  I Choose Love was written in response to the Charleston, NC church shooting in 2015. A solemn but very emotional piece.

Since this was only our third time performing in public, you would think that we would have a few butterflies. But, this ensemble is a fun group to work with that is down to earth, relaxed and likes to have fun.  We got on stage and knew we were there to sing praise to the Lord and entertain the crowd.  There was no fear or worry, just excitement to be there!  As they stood there in their white shirts and red ties, I couldn’t have been more proud with how well they did.  They were strong, energetic and filled the room with sound.  It was very clear that what came out of the mouths of our musicians was widely enjoyed by the audience.

I was very pleased with this experience and even more happy of how well we did.  I can humbly say that we were a huge success by the way many of our members were treated after the concert.  I could hardly get to the refreshment table without someone stopping to say just how much they enjoyed the group.  I am very Blessed to be the director of the ensemble and thankful that we were able to make a joyful noise to the Lord through our song.

If you want to hear the Victory Voices again, we are singing for the Christmas Eve service at the Bethel Memorial Baptist Church on December 24^th at 6:00pm.   You can find the church at http://bethelmemorialbaptist.org.

Check out some of the video and pictures from the event and our other public performance.

For many people, November 11^th means the remembrance of Veteran’s Day.  It is a solemn day to remember those who fought and gave of their lives to serve in the United States Armed Services.  From the American Revolution to our conflicts of today, it is a day to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.  This year, I have the joy of celebrating Veteran’s Day with a Thanksgiving Cantata held at The Resurrection Center in Wilmington, DE.  This year, the theme will be honoring all the branches of the military and is called “Spirit of a Grateful Nation”.  The Cantata begins at 5:30pm and is held at the church, which is located at 3301 N. Market Street, Wilmington, DE 19802. http://www.trclive.org/Events?fldMonth=11/1/2017&fldEventID=505345&fldOccuranceDate=11/11/2017

I began a relationship with this church in 2015.  I was contacted by Dion Lemond, music director of the cantata and asked to come down to be the lead trumpeter.  I had never been to the church and had no idea what to expect.  In 2015, they began hosting their Thanksgiving Cantata to give thanks to the Lord for all that we have.  I was honored to perform in their first ever event and it was an incredible experience.  The choir and soloists, consisting of almost 30 voices are incredible singers and perform with such great passion and joy to the Lord.  But, I had no idea when I got there that in addition to the great singers was a 20+ pc. orchestra to back them.  Wow, the only word I could describe the experience was Awesome!  It began as a gig I had to go to in Delaware to a very rewarding musical experience with great people who were there to give their praise to the Lord.

After this experience I was asked to perform in a Christmas Cantata in Dover Delaware in December.  It was another great experience.  I only wish it was a little closer to home so I could invite everyone to experience it.  I was also fortunate to be asked to perform in the cantatas again in 2016.  When you play in something like this, you can’t help but to meet great people.  One of the musicians I met is a saxophone player and vocalist named Chip Bailey.  Chip is a great guy with an even greater attitude on life.  He always had a dream to record his own live album.  Well, that came true on March 4, 2017. I traveled again to Wilmington to be a part of his project, a live CD and DVD recording for Chip’s first album.  I was so proud to be there to help him realize his dream and I cannot wait to hear the CD when I meet him again in November.

A cantata glorifying the Lord is always worthwhile to me. But, with this years cantata honoring those who served in the military it can only make it that much more special.  The arrangements we are performing are full orchestrations many of which come from the library of The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.  They include America the Beautiful, You are Worthy, Faithful to the End and Spirit of a Grateful People to name a few.

Although the travel is too far for most locals to attend, if you wanted to be truly moved by a great experience, this would be it.  I am glad for experiences and opportunities to improve who I am and help to make me a better person.  I hope to share my thoughts and experiences from this event in the near future.

I have seen the success of “Coffee House” events and strongly believed that if we held our first, it would be a great success. So, I began to spread the word about hosting one and looked for those interested in serving on a committee.  Through word of mouth and prayer, the vision was established and we had a group interested in organizing it so it was now time to approach the leadership for approval.  I was very pleased to receive an email from our pastor telling me that the idea was approved and to begin planning an event.

Our event is upon us and is going to be held on Saturday, October 28 at 6:00pm in the multi-purpose room downstairs in the church.  The vision of this is to create a cozy atmosphere within the church where people can come without having the stress of having to bring something.  I wanted a night out that would be social and rewarding yet still deliver a good Christian message. We can be with friends and church members sharing good food and music.  I noticed that after each of the three events at the Pilgrim Church, there was a noticeable surge of enthusiasm and energy within the church.  Each of the events was held on a Saturday so the next day in church there was a great feeling of camaraderie.  It is a great recipe of success for the church.  Whenever a church can bring people together socially and they have a great time, it is a great thing. But, when you add into that a strong Christian message it will actually draw people closer to the church and ultimately God.  Two great things to happen any church and anyone!

Although leading this charge has been a tremendous amount of work, lots of phone calls, meetings and decisions to make, I am Blessed to have a great committee to work with and a growing spirit for this event within the church.  We have a floor plan design to really transform our multi-purpose room into a quaint, yet classy restaurant feel with a stage.  We have 16 great performances lined up over two sets.  Plus, what has really been a big hit in our other events has been the trivia contest.  During the intermission, the audience gets to be a participant.  I created a trivia contest mainly of pop culture, TV and movie questions from yesteryear that definitely create a nostalgic feeling.  I also added an audio section so everyone gets to hear some great sounds of the past.  Again, this will be a great time for everyone.  In addition to the entertainment and trivia, we have a lot of great refreshment available. The best part of it all is, it is free and there is no admission to enter.  Anyone can come.  If you are reading this and will be around on the 28^th, please come over and check out this event. It will be fun.

I want people to feel like they can come to church for events other than just a Sunday service. To be able to know that there is so much more than just one hour a week! An opportunity to come to an event that does not have a sermon yet is still very spiritually rewarding. I really believe this event will do that. We have been working hard to advertise and share the word of this event.  If you are able, I would love to see you attend.

Here is our address:

Bethel Memorial Baptist Church
715 Chest Lane
Easton, Pa. 18045

If you need directions or have any questions, please feel free to call me (908) 619-4502.  I would be only too glad to assist you.

Blessings to you all!!

My sister Linda has embarked on two missions trips within the past 10 years to Kenya.  The trip was connected with our church, the Pilgrim Presbyterian Church of Phillipsburg and the Newton Presbytery.  The Presbytery of Newton, NJ has had a longtime partnership with a Presbytery in Nairobi , Kenya.  From that Kenyan partnership, Pilgrim adopted a sister church in Kahawa Station to fellowship across the world in sharing the love of Christ.  Over the years, Linda traveled with Doris Haring and Cathy Mannick to Kenya and visited our sister church.  In addition, we also donated our Choir robes to them when we purchased new ones, and we also have had prayer partners with members of the Kahawa Station congregation.  When Linda went to Kenya in 2006, she stayed with Geofrey and his wife, as he was the pastor of our sister church at the time. There she visited and assisted with many of the projects that Presbytery was sponsoring.  When she traveled the second time, she taught vacation bible school to kids in the Bahati Martyrs church in Kenya.

Pastor Geofrey, and his wife Nancy, arrived in January and have been staying with his brother John.  John came to the United States about 15 years ago to begin pastoring a church in Boston.  He has become accustomed to our culture as well as teaching about his.  Needless to say, coming to the USA from Africa can be quite a change.  Since Geofrey and Nancy came in January, they experienced something we all take for granted…Cold weather and snow… Apparently, African winters are what we would consider a mild day in early September.  We would love the summer to be that always, but, to those from routine 100+ degree-days in desert conditions, it is definitely chilly.   You can then only imagine the weather shock of a Boston winter with constant snow and freezing temperatures.  It certainly was a time of adjustment.  Since they had a lot to do as Pastor Geofrey is applying to churches all across the US to become a full-time pastor, trying to schedule a visit with them in New Jersey was not easy.

But, schedules finally aligned and they came down, albeit for only 2 short days, last weekend.  They came to our house and it was such a pleasure to meet them and experience their love for the Lord.  They have such positive and dynamic personalities and are so much fun to be around.  You can’t help but to feel uplifted in their presence.  From story telling to singing, they were never at a loss for words.  Although in many ways our cultures and daily routines are so different, we clearly had a connection with our Praise and Worship for the Lord. It doesn’t matter the race, color or culture of someone, praising the Lord has no barriers. For seeking Him is open to everyone.

On Sunday, September 10, Rev. Geofrey attended church with his wife Nancy and his brother.  It was great timing, as it happened to be the day of the annual church picnic.  They had a great time and were welcomed in by all.  I was blessed to have this opportunity with them and I cannot wait for another chance to visit with them again.

For well over 30 years, Ken Brader and his holiday brass have entertained audiences throughout the Lehigh Valley area.  Holiday shoppers at our various performance locations have been treated with a little extra holiday cheer as they make their way through the malls. As the member with the longest tenure in the ensemble, it has been a great pleasure to share this wonderful music with so many.  Due to the many logistical issues that arise when trying to schedule performances, the group only performs during the Christmas Season.  Because of such a limited schedule, it seems like there is always a lot of anticipation to play, but, once it arrives, is over so fast and we are left with anticipating the next year.

Since its inception, the membership of the ensemble has certainly grown.  In fact, over the past several years the range of members has been anywhere from 35-50.  But, with scheduling being a constant issue, it can be difficult to get everyone to play from year to year.  While everyone raves at the glorious sound created by the trumpets, flugel horns, baritone horns, trombones, and tuba, the entire show lasts only about 20 minutes.  It always leaves the audience wanting more.  After this past show schedule in December, another longtime member, Jeff Vacha, suggested to me that we create a professional recording of the group and make a CD.  We have no really good recording except those taken from a mall performance.  But, as you can expect, there is always extraneous talking and noise from the mall which gets captured on the recording.  I brought the idea to Ken and the group and it was met with a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement. We would finally be able to take this great sound into the studio and record a clean wonderful sounding CD of our music.  We settled on Saturday, July 15^th and scheduled the session in the Bethel Memorial Baptist Church in Easton, Pa.  We worked with D Freeman, engineer and owner of Sonlight Productions in Perkasie, Pa. Their website is www.sonlightproductions.net.  D is a consummate professional and was extremely great to work with.  He understood our needs and desires and made sure we were happy.  One of our members, Rachel Ewaniuk, works with D on projects and recordings so it was good to have a member who knows our music to play a key role in the recording.  It needs to be stated that the cost of the recording was generously donated by D and his studio.  We are so very thankful to D and everyone at Sonlight Productions for donating their time and service to our project.  We could not have done this without your generosity.

We were blessed with a great day and everyone was excited to be a part of such a wonderful project.  I believe you can never take life for granted.  The fact that this group has played for so many years and just now we are able to record it really is proof of how Ken and his music creation has stood the test of time.  The initial listen in the headphones really sounded awesome and I cannot wait to share the finished product with you.  The joy and camaraderie with everyone in the room was just such a blessing.  It was also a great day for Ken as he was also able to hear his music be recorded for the world to hear.  Although it took several hours, we are so happy to have a product that will last forever.

The goal of the project is not to sell the CD but to give them away.  We want to be able to share the joyful music with those who have been longtime supporters or those who are unable anymore to come out to hear our group.  Everyone in the ensemble will receive a copy and we will have copies on hand when we perform in December.  Stay tuned for more info as I will announce once the final edits have been made and the copies are ready.  A HUGE thank you to everyone who participated and sacrificed time on their Saturday to be a part of this!

Steel Stacks, Bethelehem, Pa. (www.steelstacks.org)

In the historic South Side of Bethlehem, the Steel Stacks building and Levitt Pavilion have really grown to offer a lot of choices and activities to any person or family.  By clicking EVENTS on the subheading on the home page you can see a wide variety of free and ticketed events.  Events such as Arlo Guthrie, Matthew Morrison and comedians Ben Bailey and Rob Schneider, to name a few, are slated for this summer and fall. But what is so nice about Steel Stacks is the amount of other non-musical entertainment available.  From tours, to family programming, any visitor or even local is bound to find something they will enjoy.

Sands Event Center, Bethlehem, Pa. (www.sandseventcenter.com/events/)

Located within walking distance of the Steel stacks property is the Bethlehem Sands Casino and event center. The event center has planned some eclectic and diverse entertainment this summer and is certainly worth checking out.  Or, you can go to the Molten Lounge in the Sands Casino and check out their weekly slate of free entertainment. (www.pasands.com/nightlife/molten.html)

MusikFest Bethlehem, Pa. (www.musikfest.org/lineup/)

I would be neglecting probably one of the biggest music festivals in the country if I did not mention MusikFest. With over 500 concerts in a 10-day festival, MusikFest offers a wide range of performances both free and ticketed for just about any musical taste. Click on the website and you can clearly see where and when your favorite act will be performing.

www.lehighvalleymarketplace.com/the-sounds-of-summer/

This website is a good general site which offers you a lot of choices and information for each choice and venue.  It is worth taking a look at.

www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-summer-band-concerts-lehigh-valley-20170506-story.html

If you are into local bands of all types, there are a lot of choices for that too.  Click on the link above and you will find from Easton to Catasauqua, Bethlehem to Macungie, a large list of venues and scheduled performances.  This alone is enough to tire anyone out!

www.discoverlehighvalley.com/events/major-events-festivals/

If fairs and festivals are your thing, discover Lehigh valley has a list of 21 different events, which offer great food, music and activities for family, friends or just yourself.  This is a great resource for activity in the greater Lehigh Valley.

Mt. Airy Casino & Resort  (www.mountairycasino.com/entertainment/)

The Poconos are about 30 miles North of the Lehigh Valley and also feature a wide range of activity both indoors and out for you to take advantage of.  Perhaps my next blog will focus more on the Poconos and the treasure trove of great things the region offers. In the meantime,  Mt. Airy Casino and Resort is a hot spot with a lot of activity and entertainment nightly and including special event concerts.  If you are thinking family or doing something with friends, check out this website: www.poconomountains.com/things-to-do/adventure-bucketlist/summer/  The summer bucket list for the Pocono area gives you a list of cool activities available to you.

There is so much more I could list here. The greater Lehigh Valley and even a little further out, it is just filled with so many options of things to do.  If you ever say, “there is nothing to do tonight”, you probably aren’t looking because with just a little amount of searching, you can really open up a ton of possibilities. Plus, this is without mentioning any of the many shopping areas, food choices and parks.  Phew, I am tired just thinking of all these possibilities!

Best of luck in finding what you are looking for this summer!!