Friday, November 15, 2019
We’re proud to announce our Celebration event featuring Linny Award winning performer Alex Meixner
Put on your partying shoes and come with your friends to the Maingate Nightclub at the Allentown Fairgrounds on Friday, Nov. 15, for an evening of rousing music, good food, and conversations with Alex Meixner, winner of the ArtsQuest Foundation’s 2019 Linny Award for Performing Artist of the Year. The evening kicks off at 6:00 with The Main Street Cruisers, northeast Pennsylvania’s Oldies Rock & Roll Show Band, prior to Alex taking the stage.
Meixner, Allentown’s native son and Musikfest headliner, is famous for his versatile genre mashups of polka, pop music, funk, jazz, and who knows what else! He recently worked with Jack Black on the Netflix movie The Polka King, and his album Polka Freak Out was nominated for Best Polka Album at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Alex will, of course, play his signature instrument, the accordion. In between numbers, you’ll hear about some of the exciting new programming planned for the 2020 Great Pennsylvania Music and Arts Celebration on Memorial Day Weekend in May. The free-admission Celebration is presented every year by Pennsylvania Music Preservation Society (PAMPS), which was co-founded by Alex.
This event at the Maingate is a membership fundraiser for PAMPS. If you attend the event to congratulate Alex on his ArtsQuest Linny Award, your $25 price of admission will cover the entire cost of your inaugural membership in PAMPS that will remain active until December 31, 2020. Please see the Membership page in this website for more details.
Saturday May 25 to Monday, May 27, 2019
We were pleased to feature FREE admission, FREE parking, and family friendly fun at the historic Allentown Fairgrounds on Memorial Day Weekend 2019!
The 2019 programming included rock & roll, polka, folk, bluegrass, Celtic and Latino music, as well as a very professional version of a Bob Hope USO tribute show as attribute to veterans from WWII to Vietnam. We also showcased young musicians at a Sunday afternoon Rock Youth program. The annual Artists Market featured works by some of the Pennsylvania’s finest artisans, including noted quilter Carole Dorr. Fifty different items of food were provided in a Food Court with six different tents serving Cajun, South Philly, Barbecue, seafood and fun foods like funnel cakes. Outdoor seating with umbrella tables, as well as indoor eating spaces, were provided.
