Musikfest 2014: Get there by canoe, bike, bus or shuttle

shuttle

Once you make your way into Bethlehem for Musikfest, you can park and drop off a car at one of two off-site lots and jump on a $4 shuttle ride to the festival.

(Express-Times File Photo)

Don't want to deal with the hassle of driving to Musikfest? There are other transportation options, including canoes, bikes and buses.

If traveling by water floats your boat, the Wildlands Conservancy will be paddling a nine-mile stretch of the Lehigh River from Canal Park in Allentown to Sand Island in Bethlehem at 10 a.m. Aug. 9.

The group will dock and enjoy Musikfest before taking the river east to Wilson Avenue in Freemansburg. A one-way shuttle bus is being provided for that venture. Guests ages 10 and up can register at wildlandspa.org. The trip will be a minimum of six hours.

Representatives of the conservancy say that typically 15 to 30 paddlers have joined similar events. The Musikfest trip has been conducted the past few years, says Megan Sciarrino, director of the annual fund and communications for the conservancy.

ArtsQuest spokesman Mark Demko says locals can also bike to Fest to avoid the traffic. Bike parking is available in front of the Visitors Center on the SteelStacks campus.

Park-and-ride shuttles

More and more Musikfest patrons are opting for shuttle bus service into the festival for convenience and to avoid the havoc of finding a parking space.

ArtsQuest offers patrons offsite parking lots with a park-and-ride shuttle system, available at Martin Tower on Eighth Avenue for the north side, and the iQor lot at 240 Emery St., off Route 412 in South Side Bethlehem.

"During Musikfest, we see 1 million people over 10 days. We want to make it easy for people to get to Musikfest whether they're local or out of town," says Walter Keiper, senior vice president of ArtsQuest.

About 15 percent of festival patrons travel from New Jersey and New York, Demko says.

"We actually have people who visit from more than 40 different states each year," Demko says.

Keiper says the park-and-ride option is growing in popularity because it offers the comfort of an air-conditioned motor coach ride right into the festival. If patrons hold onto their ticket, they also can use it toward free unlimited rides on the North-South Transfer shuttle, which runs all day to the main stage on South Side.

The park-and-ride has been an option for the past 25 years, Keiper says, but noted a significant uptick in riders once the South Side campus was added in 2011.

"It's a very popular mode because otherwise, where are you going to park?" Keiper asks. "Or you're not from the area. Why not make it easy -- park and take the motor coach?"

Keiper estimates more than 30,000 Musikfest patrons use the park-and-ride option throughout the 10-day festival.

More bus routes

Ridership also shoots up for the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority metro service during the festival, Keiper says.

Owen O'Neil, director of planning for LANTA, says they see anywhere from 5,000 to 7,500 additional riders on buses during the 10-day festival compared to a typical 10-day period. The company even reserves buses in the event of overcrowding.

"We have several routes serving downtown Bethlehem which people can take to access the festival," O'Neil says.

LANTA usually adds a second bus to the downtown Bethlehem loop route during the festival, and it wouldn't be uncommon on Friday or Saturday night to add a third, he says.

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