High School Students Help Shape Festival Experience for Guests by Booking Musical Acts at Musikfest

White Noise, featuring former Freedom student and Marketing Musikfest alum Covey Carpenter

Started in 1984, Musikfest continues to grow each year and now attracts one million people to Bethlehem for 500-plus free performances over 10 days each August.  A unique element of the festival since 2013 is that it allows students from Bethlehem’s Freedom and Liberty High Schools to book bands for the event’s Plaza Tropical stage as part of a spring-long educational experience called ‘Marketing Musikfest.’

For the program’s fifth year, ArtsQuest and the Bethlehem Area School District have partnered for Marketing Musikfest, the unique, hands-on educational experience that allows students to apply their marketing skills they learn in class to a real life setting at Musikfest. This year’s ‘Marketing Musikfest’ lineup includes nine bands, with both local and out-of-state groups performing everything from rock to folk and pop. Among the groups booked by the high schools are White Noise, which is made up of current and former Freedom and Liberty students, one of whom was an integral member of the Marketing Musikfest class in 2015; and Supérmac, which features current Liberty students and alumni.

The 2017 Marketing Musikfest lineups are:

August 5 – Plaza Tropical (chosen by Liberty High School)

Noon:               The Wildlings (Psychedelic Rock)
1 p.m.:             Chamomile & Whiskey (Irish Folk Rock)
2 p.m.              Carly Moffa (Indie Pop)
3 p.m.:             Supérmac (Alternative Pop-Rock)

August 12 – Plaza Tropical (chosen by Freedom High School)

Noon:               Callout (Rock)
1 p.m.              Grapefruit Cannonball (Alternative/Rock)
2 p.m.              Friends at the Falls (Alternative/Indie)
3 p.m.              May’ve (Alternative/Indie)
4 p.m.              White Noise (Rock)

Launched in 2013, the Marketing Musikfest program is designed to help students develop hands-on marketing skills and real-world work experience by booking and promoting bands at the festival. Through the leadership of their teachers – Rob Petrosky of Freedom and Anne Skelly of Liberty – and ArtsQuest Chief Programming Officer Patrick Brogan, the students discover various aspects of the festival such as event planning, marketing, production and public relations. The students then use their newly-learned skills to help spread the word about the concerts and the festival in the months leading up to the event.

For more on the Bethlehem Area School District at Musikfest follow on Twitter:  @FHS_AtTheFest and @LHSMusikfest