On our walk, we heard music coming from across the Lehigh
River from an earlier concert. I pointed out to my friends where we’d be (“just
on the other side of those rusted, hulking furnaces!”), and received puzzled
looks.
When we arrived at 8:30 p.m.,
just as the sun was setting, the free concert at Levitt Pavilion was wrapping
up. Hundreds of blues fans were sprawled over the lawn with blankets and
camping chairs, enjoying snacks and drinks and the beautiful night air. Across
Founder’s Way we found the stage we were looking for, on the Air Products
plaza. Mark’s aunts and uncles are members of a cover band called “Call Your
Mama” that was scheduled to play al fresco that evening. As soon as the Levitt
show wrapped up, the stage came alive with music. The plaza was packed with
people seated under large umbrellas at café tables. Many people who were at the
show at the Levitt Pavilion turned their chairs around and enjoyed the second
act. Even more fans milled around the plaza before and after taking in a movie
inside the ArtsQuest center. As the momentum began to build, dozens of people
began making their way to the dance floor, just in front of the stage, enjoying
the sounds of “Brick House” and “Love Shack” and basking in the glow of the
uplit blast furnaces just yards away. As the students who attended Phillipsburg
High School’s prom filtered out of the building, many joined the party already
in progress on the dance floor (adding a little sparkle to the crowd –
literally). Many patrons chose to stay put and watch the show from tables,
ordering drinks and food from servers and watching the whole scene. When the
show ended at 11 p.m., and we walked back to our cars, we wondered aloud what
all those people would have been doing were there no such thing as SteelStacks.
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