This Weekend: Harvest Festival Downtown, Oktoberfest at SteelStacks

Sample wines from around the world, beer from 14 different breweries and 10 different soups from some of the area’s best restaurants at the 8th Annual Bethlehem Harvest Festival along Main Street on Saturday.

Enjoy a great day of music on two stages, beginning at 11 a.m. The festival ends at 6 p.m. The south end of Main Street will feature kids activities, including pumpkin painting and a petting zoo.

This year’s festival will feature 14 different breweries, a wine trail with wine from around the world, 10 different wines and 10 different soups.  

Beer Passports ($20 in advance), Wine Passports ($15 in advance) and Soup Passports ($10 in advance) can all be purchased in advance atwww.downtownbethlehemassociation.com.

Meanwhile, over at SteelStacks, Oktoberfest resumes for its second weekend beginning at 5 p.m. Friday. Enjoy German-style food, beer, fun and games, including a second round of Dachshund races at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Another highlight of the weekend will be the celebrity skills challenge, which will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Ten-person teams led by Mayor John Callahan, Lindsay Knupp of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Bill White of The Morning Call, Dustin Schoof of The Express-Times, Bill Sheridan of 99.9 The Hawk, George Wacker of LehighValleyWithLove.com and Al Di Carlo and Kristi Fulkerson of Service Electric Cable TV will go head to head while competing for year-long bragging rights and the coveted “Boot,” a glass trophy created by the ArtsQuest Glass Studio at the Banana Factory.

Contestants will participate in the stein relay race, race the clock in the beer barrel competition, and try to show a steady hand and nerves of steel while pouring beer from an elevated platform into “Das Boot.” Plus, it’s an endurance test unlike any other when team members take part in Masskrugstemmen, a popular event at German Oktoberfests in which competitors hold a full mug of beer at arm’s length until there’s only one person left standing (or holding).

Single day admission costs $10 for the public and $7 for ArtsQuest members. Event passes that give you unlimited admission are also available for $25 for the public and $20 for ArtsQuest members. Click here for more information.

Here’s what else is happening in and near Bethlehem this weekend:

• Eliot Fisk, internationally renowned guitar virtuoso and 2013 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Gala artist is offering a free workshop for fans, students, and lovers of guitar music at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Foy Hall. Guitar Aerobics and the Poetry of Technique is open to everyone: young and old, classical, jazz, rock, beginner,intermediate, or advanced. Bring your guitar or simply come and listen, meet the master, and join in a Question and Answer session.

• Friar’s Point Band, which visits Godfrey Daniels at 8 p.m. Friday, takes their name from the Mississippi home of Hirsberg’s Drugstore, where, according to legend, many blues artists got their start by playing from the store’s front porch. Admission is $16.50. Reservations recommended.

• The Sands Bethlehem Event Center hosts an evening of alternative rock with Soul Asylum, Fountains of Wayne and Evan Dando, starting at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $25 and $30.

• The Homestead Court Condos 2114-2156 East Blvd., Bethlehem, is hosting a community garage sale beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday. Lots of good deals at various units! Baby items, clothing, household items and more. Just in time for the holidays.

• Take advantage of a once-a-year opportunity to learn about local agriculture in Northampton County during Penn State Extension's Open Gate Farm Tour. There is no charge to go to any of the farms. Bring your family to any of 19 participating farms on Saturday and Sunday, between 1 and 5 p.m. on both days. It’s rain or shine! Dress casually and enjoy the day talking with local farmers and learning how your food is produced. 

• Fegley’s Allentown Brew Works will hold its annual Whisky Festival from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets cost $45. Twenty different styles of whisky from the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland will be represented in the selection.

• MTV Buzzworthy’s “Breakthrough Band of the Year” in 2011, A Day to Remember, brings its House Party Tour to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 6:45 p.m. Saturday. All Time Low and Pierce the Veil are also coming to the party. Tickets are $45.

• The Reverend Billy C. Wirtz, who visits Godfrey Daniels at 8 p.m. Saturday, is a comic genius, gifted pianist and American musicologist who defies easy classification. "I like to think of myself as the Victor Borge of the blues," states the Reverend, but Billy goes way beyond Borge both in scope of subject matter (from politics to social commentary) and, of course, in taste. In fact, no theme is too extreme, taboo, or undignified for the Reverend, so long as it garners a good laugh. Admission is $19.50 in advance and $24.50 on the day of the show.

• The Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s annual Gala starts at 8 p.m. Saturday at Zoellner Arts Center. Eliot Fisk, a world-renowned guitar virtuoso, already a favorite of Bach Festival audiences, is joined by his wife, celebrated guitarist Zaira Meneses, and their twelve-year old daughter Raquel, who has already received recognition as an extraordinary young pianist. The irresistible family trio will light up the stage with a program including works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Chopin, as well as Spanish and Latin repertoire. Tickets are $40, $25 and $15 for students.

• Award-winning folk, Americana singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves performs at Godfrey Daniels at 7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $18.50 in advance or $23.50 on the day of the show.

• Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, songwriters and founding members of the new wave band Squeeze were oft compared with countrymen John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Of course, there only ever was one Lennon & McCartney, but Difford & Tillbrook did write their share of critical and chart topping hits, including "Cool For Cats," "Up The Junction," "Slap & Tickle," "Pulling Mussels (From A Shell)," "Another Nail In My Heart," and “Black Coffee in Bed.” Tilbrook, one half of the team, performs at the Musikfest Café at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 and $20.