Bethlehem, Pa. — Musikfest’s attendance for its 41st run was more than 23% lower than last year’s record crowds due to extreme heat and days of rain, the festival announced on Tuesday. Despite this, Musikfest, the largest non-gated music festival in the country, reported record crowds for its headline Steel Stage and the most sold-out headline shows in its history. The festival, which had to suspend activities for two days due to lightning storms, attracted 1,020,000 people, down from last year’s record 1,330,000 attendees. This year’s total was the lowest since 2018 when it was 955,000, and the festival didn’t take place in 2020 due to the coronavirus. ArtsQuest President Kassie Hilgert said, “Musikfest 2024 was unlike the last few years, weatherwise. When the weather is great, it’s easy to put on a successful festival. This year brought challenges, and every single member of our Musikfest team of staff and volunteers, along with our law enforcement community and city officials, came together to support one another in every way possible. It’s that teamwork that helped to make this year’s festival a big success, especially with the records that we set.” The festival set records with 54,786 tickets sold for its 11 shows on the Wind Creek Steel Stage — an almost 8% increase from the previous record set in 2011, the first year that the festival included the Steel Stage on the SteelStacks campus, Musikfest said.
