What Does This Summer in Bethlehem Look Like?
In light of the last year a half, events and holidays have looked pretty bleak up until this point. Fortunately, Pennsylvania has already achieved a vaccination rate of 48.3%. In the beginning of 2021, we partnered with the Bethlehem Health Bureau to schedule as many people as possible for their COVID-19 vaccinations. We are so proud of how our city has handled and is continuing to combat the pandemic. Everyone’s efforts are making a big impact on society and we are beginning to resume ‘normalcy.’
In May, Governor Wolf opened all restaurants and outdoor event centers to full capacity. While everyone was thrilled with this news, we especially were. UBMe originated in the event space, and when COVID-19 shut everything down, we too were impacted. Although we were able to convert to our Online Ordering and Curbside Delivery system, we cannot wait for events to be back!
With the hope that cases of COVID-19 continue to lessen due to increased vaccination numbers, we are excited to look ahead at this summer in Bethlehem! From music to outings to workshops, we are excited to share with you what will be going on in the City of Bethlehem this summer!
Historic Bethlehem Summer Restaurant Week
That’s right! Historic Bethlehem Summer Restaurant Week is back this summer in downtown Bethlehem! We are ECSTATIC that our favorite local restaurants will be offering full indoor and outdoor seating. Summer Restaurant Week includes great, fixed-price dinner meals as well as some lunch menus. Lunch meals start at $15 and dinners are priced around $30. These menus will be offered until Saturday, June 26th, so make sure to explore downtown this week and get some good eats! This year, diners are also encouraged to use #PostYourPlate when dining out to share the restaurant love!
Restaurants included are: Apollo Grill, Billy’s Downtown Diner, Edge Restaurant, Fegley’s Bethlehem Brew Works, Mama Nina, McCarthy’s Red Stag Pub, Tapas on Main, The Brick, The Flying Egg, The Melting Pot, Twisted Olive and Urbano Mexican Kitchen & Bar. More details can be found here.
Music and the Arts
If you are from the Lehigh Valley, you know that the arts have a strong impact on the City of Bethlehem. Walking around Bethlehem, you will see murals, sculptures and gallery exhibitions. Once a month, First Friday occurs and encourages people of all ages to get out and enjoy the arts. Both Lehigh University and Moravian College have great art and design programs and serve as active parties in the art world.
As well as being a hotspot for artists and exhibitions, Bethlehem is also known for its music venues. SteelStacks and Wind Creek are located right next to each and there are great concerts and performances held at both. Musikfest takes places every year on Main Street of Downtown Bethlehem and is celebrated by people from all over the country.
Below are some events that will be contributing to PA reopening this summer. We cannot wait to give you more details!
Musikfest
Excitement sparked when it was announced that Musikfest would be back this year with all of the live music we love and enjoy. Musikfest will be running from August 5-15th and the concert line-up is AWESOME. You can get tickets to see Phillip Phillips, Sam Hunt, Zedd, Shinedown and so many more! Click here to view the full line-up and to purchase tickets.
In addition to the great musicians and bands that come to town, there is incredible food and shopping available. There is so much to do during the 10 days of Musikfest! Local vendors and artisans will be there, along with entertainers, food-trucks, food-carts and alcohol stops. Since Musikfest is located on Main Street, all of the local, downtown restaurants take part in the festivities as well!
To view all of the amazing Musikfest activities that will be happening this summer in Bethlehem, make sure to visit their website.
Wind Creek Event Center
Wind Creek is known for having great concerts and entertainers. With maximum indoor capacity back, there are a lot of concerts being rescheduled for the upcoming months. Beginning in August, Wind Creek will be back to hosting concerts, with the first one being Frankie Vallie and the the Four Seasons on August 12th. Their schedule picks up in September with at least 2 shows a week, if not 3-4. It is incredibly exciting to see Wind Creek coming back to its entertainment glory!
If you’re at Wind Creek, you need to be sure to stop at SteelStacks too, which is right next door!
The Banana Factory
A Bethlehem favorite, The Banana Factory, has been back with their amazing art classes and events. In July there will be many classes and workshops to attend, that are not just focused on art, but bettering ones career. In addition to their events are art exhibitions. While there are in-person exhibitions, The Banana Factory now features Digital Exhibitions. They are great because anyone can view the artwork virtually and from any location. Through these digital exhibitions, the Banana Factory is broadening the spectrum of viewers to beyond the Lehigh Valley!
If you are interested in learning more about any of the Banana Factory’s events or exhibitions, check out their website.
Hello, Summer!
While the last year was incredible daunting, we have united and made tremendous progress towards achieving ‘normalcy.’ The efforts of our community has made the reopening of Pennsylvania possible. We are thrilled that Bethlehem, PA is looking to flourish again and get back to the daily hustle and bustle. We are looking forward to seeing people out and about this summer, enjoying the great eats and arts that Bethlehem has to offer!
At UBMe, we cannot wait to get back into the event space, but we definitely are not leaving the restaurant world! We love all of the restaurants we have worked with thus far and are always looking to make new connections, especially locally! We will continue to offer our free online ordering system and are actively looking to increase revenue for local restaurants. If you have any questions, please be sure to contact us directly!
If there is an event we missed, please contact us and we would love to include it in our next blog post! We hope you enjoyed reading about these upcoming events and we can’t wait to see you around Bethlehem this summer!