Issue 1
Two trick-or-treat nights and the last cast at Bethlehem Steel
Easton's Witches' Walk and the Bethlehem parade, who trick-or-treats Friday vs Saturday, Bethlehem's new data-center rules, and the last cast at Bethlehem Steel.
Hot picks
This weekend's best bets around here.
Saturday, Easton turns Scott Park over to the witches. Sunday you get your pick of two Halloween parades, and then a funk band of mummies plays SteelStacks that night. Allentown saves its parade for Halloween itself.
Easton · Sat Oct 24 · 3-8pm · free
Witches' Walk: Saturday in Scott Park
Night two of Easton's Witches' Walk moves down to Scott Park on Larry Holmes Drive. Potion-inspired treats, magical games, witch and wizard face painting, and a costume contest at 5:30. Shops downtown are in on it too, and Glazed on Northampton St has witchy donut specials all weekend. Come back Sunday at 3 and the Phillipsburg-Easton Halloween Parade crosses the Free Bridge into Centre Square. Book & Puppet Co. says a 15-foot Mother Earth puppet is marching in it. Walking a 15-foot lady across the Free Bridge is a logistics problem I would pay money to watch. Easton Main Street · Easton calendar
Photo: Jai Smith / Lehigh Daily
Bethlehem · Sun Oct 25 · 2pm · free
105th Bethlehem Halloween Parade
The route runs about a mile and a half. It starts at West Broad and 9th Ave, heads east on Broad, turns south on Main, and ends at Main and Spring. Bring a chair. The rain date is Sunday Nov 1. This year's theme is "Futuristic Frights: The Next 80 Years." The parade is 105 years old and it's planning for 80 more, which is a better retirement plan than mine. City of Bethlehem
Photo: Lehigh Daily (Isabel Hope / Jai Smith)
Bethlehem · Sun Oct 25 · 7:30pm · $34.25-$64
Here Come the Mummies at Musikfest Café
ArtsQuest describes them as an eight-piece funk-rock band of "5000-year-old Egyptian Mummies." Musikfest Café is at 101 Founders Way. Doors and dinner open at 6, and reserved seats come with a $10 food and beverage minimum. Parade at 2, mummies at 7:30, and your Sunday is handled. Per ArtsQuest they've opened for P-Funk and Al Green, which is a pretty strong résumé for guys who've been dead 5,000 years. ArtsQuest
Photo: ArtsQuest / Here Come the Mummies
Coming up: Allentown · Sat Oct 31 · 11am-2pm · free
Allentown Halloween Walking Parade
This one runs on foot only. Hamilton St from 9th to 12th, with bands, dance groups, local organizations, and vendors, and no moving vehicles at all. The rain date is Sunday Nov 1. Allentown's Día de los Muertos celebration fills the Arts Park on Sunday Nov 1 from 2:30 to 7:30. Allentown trick-or-treat is the night before, Friday the 30th, so this is the city's sugar-crash parade. City of Allentown
Photo: City of Allentown
Field guide
One useful guide to living around here.
Allentown · Bethlehem · Easton · Emmaus · Whitehall · Catasauqua · Northampton · Nazareth · Bath · Hellertown · Macungie · Coopersburg
Trick-or-treat around here: who goes Friday, who goes Saturday
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and the valley split. Some towns go Friday Oct 30. The rest wait for Saturday Oct 31. Both nights run 6 to 8 almost everywhere. If you live in one town and your kid's best friend lives in another, you might get two nights out of it.
Here's the short version. Allentown, Bethlehem, Emmaus, Whitehall, and Coopersburg go Friday. Easton, Catasauqua, Northampton, Nazareth, Bath, and Hellertown go Saturday. The one that trips people up is Macungie. Lower Macungie Township goes Saturday and runs until 9, and Upper Macungie goes Friday. The borough itself? I've seen it listed both ways, so check with Macungie Borough before you head out.
Porch light on means you're handing out candy. Bethlehem and Whitehall both spell that out on their town pages. The full guide has every town and its rain date, plus the parades that land the same weekend.
The scrap
The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.
South Side Bethlehem
Beetlejuice waits for the walk signal
Just a normal night on the South Side: Beetlejuice and a human highlighter, waiting on the walk signal.
TikTok via @alyssaaslaysss
Route 22
Route 22 was all clear, apparently
Waze told me Route 22 was all clear. I fell for it. Again.
TikTok via @lvwithlove
Allentown
Three kids, one bike
Allentown carpool: three kids on one little bike, and somehow nobody's walking.
TikTok via @ayolyve
What's building
What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.
Data centers are the new warehouses around here. Bethlehem just wrote its first rules for them, and Allentown's first big one cleared the planners on Emaus Avenue.
Bethlehem · council vote Tue Oct 20
Bethlehem's data-center rules pass, with two plans already in line
City Council gave final approval Tuesday to Bethlehem's first zoning rules for data centers. Under them, a data center needs a special exception in the Industrial district and has to sit at least 1,000 feet from residential zones and from places like schools, day cares, parks, and hospitals. There are noise limits too, and applicants have to file studies on things like water and energy up front. The catch is that two proposals filed before the vote get reviewed under the old code, one on Industrial Drive and one in the city's industrial zone. The city says it's asking both developers to follow the new study requirements voluntarily. The second one isn't expected before the Planning Commission until December at the earliest. So the city wrote a new rulebook, and the first two in line get to play with the old one. WFMZ · Lehigh Daily
Photo: Ellie Sileo / Lehigh Daily
Allentown · 2401 W. Emaus Ave
Emaus Avenue warehouse-to-data-center clears planners
The Allentown Planning Commission approved Quantm Group's plan on Oct 13 to turn a vacant 224,000-square-foot warehouse at 2401 W. Emaus Ave into an 80-megawatt data center. Approval came with conditions, including a cap on megawatts, limits on when the backup generators can run, and a closed-loop cooling system that won't use public water. Neighbors raised concerns about generator noise and diesel fuel storage. A daycare across the street had appealed and then withdrew it. City Council doesn't have to vote on this one. The mayor says the next step is a community benefits agreement with whichever company leases the building, and that hasn't been negotiated yet. His case for it boils down to fewer trucks than if it stayed a warehouse, which might be the most Lehigh Valley argument I've ever heard. WFMZ (1) · WFMZ (2)
Photo: WFMZ-TV 69 News
Makers
Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.
Saturday, crafters set up behind a 1777 farmhouse in Emmaus. Sunday morning, a big market at the Rose Garden right before the Bethlehem parade. Then on Halloween itself, Macungie throws a fall fest in the park.
Emmaus · Sat Oct 24 · noon-4pm
Harvest Festival at the Knauss Homestead
The fourth annual Harvest Festival fills the grounds of the Knauss Homestead, 152 East Main Street (Rear) in Emmaus. Local artists and crafters sell their stuff, and there's craft beer and wine plus plenty of food trucks and bakeries. The homestead says Heinrich Knauss built the house in 1777 for his father. So yes, I'll be buying a candle in a backyard that's older than the Constitution. Knauss Homestead
Photo: Knauss Homestead
Bethlehem · Sun Oct 25 · 9am-2pm
The Mom Market: Spooktacular Fall Fest
The Bethlehem Rose Garden at 1001 W. Union Blvd fills up with 100+ local vendors. The Mom Market is built around women-owned businesses. There's a Kids Market too, where kids ages 5 to 17 run their own booths and sell stuff they made. Discover Lehigh Valley says the morning kicks off with free yoga from The Valley Om. Costumes are welcome. The Halloween parade steps off at 2 on West Broad at 9th Ave, so shop first and then go grab a curb. I fully expect a 9-year-old to out-negotiate me on a bracelet. The Mom Market
Photo: The Mom Market
Coming up: Macungie · Sat Oct 31 · 11am-3pm
Fall Fest at Macungie Memorial Park
Outdoors at Macungie Memorial Park, 50 N. Poplar St. Vendors and food trucks, plus trick-or-treating and a Halloween costume contest for kids and pets. Parking is free. If you're trick-or-treating in the borough after, check with Macungie Borough on which night it's running before you head out. Pets are eligible for the costume contest, so the dog doesn't get a vote on this. Events by Jennifer Lynn · Eventbrite
Photo: Events by Jennifer Lynn Company (via Eventbrite)
Deep cut
One local history leftover worth knowing.
Bethlehem · the blast furnaces at SteelStacks, 711 E. First St (ArtsQuest Visitor Center)
The night the furnaces went cold
You've probably stood under the blast furnaces at SteelStacks with a beer in your hand during Musikfest and never thought twice about them. I hadn't either, until I walked the Hoover-Mason Trestle on a quiet weekday and read the signs. The rusted towers along the South Side were the hot end of Bethlehem Steel, and for a long time they were the reason this city existed the way it does.
The story of those furnaces starts with the Bethlehem Iron Company firing its first blast furnace in 1863. It runs through the steel beams that went into the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Then on November 18, 1995, workers cast Blast Furnace C for the last time, and thousands of people walked out of the plant knowing they weren't coming back. The trestle you stroll on now carried ore and limestone to those furnaces around the clock from 1907 until that year.
If you want somebody to walk you through it, Historic Bethlehem runs a Rise & Fall of Bethlehem Steel walking tour from the ArtsQuest Visitor Center at 1pm Fridays through Mondays. It's $20 and takes about an hour and a half. Or go up the trestle on your own and read the markers. The longer cut has the whole story of the furnaces.
Season
What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.
Last call for pumpkins. The big patch in Bath closes for the year Nov 1, and Sunday's Hellertown market wants to see your costume and your best carving.
Bath · Sat-Sun through Nov 1 · 10am-6pm
Seiple Farms pumpkin patch and corn maze
Seiple Farms at 5761 Nor-Bath Blvd runs a free hayride out to a 40-acre pumpkin patch, and you only pay for what you pick. Pumpkins are 75 cents a pound. The big corn maze is 22 acres and $10 a person, free for kids under 2. Most activities are cash only, though there are ATMs on the farm, and leashed, well-behaved dogs are welcome. They also sell apples, cider, mums, and corn stalks if you're still doing the porch. This weekend and next are the last two of the season, so whatever pumpkin you've been putting off, this is it. Seiple Farms
Photo: Seiple Farms
Hellertown · Sun Oct 25 · 9am-noon
Halloween at the Saucon Valley Farmers Market
The Sunday market at 409 Constitution Ave, next to the Hellertown Library, goes full Halloween. Show up in a costume or spirit wear and the vendors hand you treats, adults and pets included. There are prizes for the best costumes. There's also a pumpkin carving contest, with prizes for spookiest and silliest. Drop yours at the market tent by 9 and pick it up by noon. The market runs Sundays through Nov 22. I'm going for silliest, mostly because that's where my carving skills naturally land. Saucon Valley Farmers Market
Photo: Saucon Valley Farmers Market
That's the week
See you around the valley.
Drop your email. I'll show up Tuesday morning.