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Programmers’ Picks: SouthSide Arts & Music Festival

ssamf-picks

The new SouthSide Arts & Music Festival (April 28-29) is a glorious combination of the two things ArtsQuest does best: showcasing nationally-touring musicians and providing high-caliber visual arts programming to the Lehigh Valley. Patrick Brogan and Stacie Brennan, tasked with picking the bands and artists to feature at the Southside Arts & Music Festival (SSAMF), are extremely excited and proud to present this festival for the first time. Below, you can find their picks of can’t-miss programs over this awesome April weekend!

TOP 5: Music to catch at SSAMF!

By Patrick Brogan, Chief Programming Officer & Manager of the ArtsQuest Center

1. The headliners: Rusted Root & Robert Randolph

We’ll have great headliners in the Café each night with Rusted Root taking you back to the 90s playing their hits and creating a great vibe of fun and energized music, and then Robert Randolph and the Family Band simply crushing an audience with skilled blues and rhythm music. Randolph was such a hit at Blues Fest last year we couldn’t wait to get him back, and Rusted Root has been regularly filling the Café with great performances year-after-year. Both nights will end with a great show in the Musikfest Café.

2. Discovery Artist: The Sun Parade

This four piece indie rock band from Northampton, Massachusetts is my favorite “new” act on the lineup. They are a little bit Beatles, a little bit Dr. Dog. I’m a big fan of their singles “Heart’s Out” and “Need You By My Side.”

3. Legendary Artists: Steve Forbert, Coco Montoya, Pablo Batista

80s pop songwriter Steve Forbert is a great live show made even better by the intimacy that the venue of Godfrey Daniels provides, Coco Montoya is a legendary blues artist with amazing guitar skills and  Pablo Batista (a Holy Infancy & SouthSide alum!) is the coolest Latin percussionist you’ve ever met having toured with the likes of Alicia Keys, John Legend and more.

4. Younger Favorite Artists: Ceramic Animal

Ceramic Animal, our Artist In Residence this year, has a great retro-rock sound heavily influenced by the 60s/70s, but with a modern take, while Ballroom Thieves is more pop-indie-folk; I could listen to their song “Arrows”on repeat for hours. Also, Blair Crimmins & the Hookers (out of Atlanta, GA) are southern Dixieland & Ragtime soul, and just may deliver the highlight shows of the whole event.

5. Everything else!

There are dance performances in the Commons at the ArtsQuest Center each night, there is an improv comedy show, there are students performing, there’s an Indian pop singer, there are visual art engagements everywhere, there is Social Still, The Bookstore and Bonn Place Brewing Co. for great drinks, plus Jenny’s and Molinari’s and countless places for great eats. The spirit of the SouthSide of Bethlehem is one of engaging discovery across a palate that honors the grit of the work and workers here before alongside the passion and energy of the future through the arts. It’s going to be a ton of fun!

Click here to check out the full SSAMF performer lineup!

TOP 5: Visual Arts activities to check out at SSAMF!

By Stacie Brennan, Senior Director of Visual Arts

1. Dripped on the Road

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Experience the power of public art in action as the Dripped on the Road artists install a giant mural to the gateway of the shops in the SouthSide Arts District on the side of 24 East 3rd street. Then learn from the artists at a hands-on workshop that gives you tips and tricks designing and mural for installing artwork outdoors.

2. Jay Walker: “The Steelworker” Tape Art Installation, Plaid Shirt Project and Graffiti Tape Art Workshop

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Jay Walker is a classically trained artist from Pennsylvania Academy of Art, who has taken pop and street art to the next level using alternative materials including tape. Inspired by the history of Bethlehem Steel and the workers who breathed life into its past, Jay Walker created a colorful large-scale installation from duct tape that incorporates the uniform and everyday clothing that were once worn by steel workers. He will also be including SouthSide Bethlehem as a destination for his international public art project called the “Plaid Shirt Project,” where he adheres vinyl and tape art shirts like graffiti in unexpected places.

3. Lehigh Valley Art Wars

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Watch local artists create in a competitive environment where they are challenged to complete a work of art based on a theme within in a two-hour period. Four separate battles will take place during the festival where 16 artists will be whittled down to 8 artist who will move on to the next round. Artists bring their own supplies and Art Wars supplies the substrate to create on.

4. Hands-on Arts Projects

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Choose from a variety of hands-on art projects for children and adults that are sure to jump-start your creativity and leave you with a feeling of pride when you complete them. From a cute and vividly painted cactus, to a Frida Kahlo inspired flower crown, you will have lots of creative projects to either wear or display.

5. Face Painting by Peanut Butter

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Experience face painting like you never have before, and become part of the artistic display at the festival. With unique and easy to remove air brushed designs using water-based, non-toxic paints and jewels, festival attendees become a work of art in less than 12 minutes.

Click here to check out the full SSAMF visual arts lineup!

SouthSide Arts & Music Festival
APRIL 28-29
Bethlehem, PA

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