Kutztown Day offers full lineup of live music
Kutztown Park will be bustling with the annual Kutztown Day celebration on Aug. 4, held annually on the first Sunday in August since 1907.
Held from noon to 9:30 p.m., the community event features a variety events, displays, games, food, 50/50 drawing of prizes and concerts with music for everyone’s enjoyment, culminating with the fireworks display at 9:30 p.m. The Kutztown Day Committee has a full slate of events for adults, families, and children and all ages.
The Dave Mell Band will kick off the concerts, performing in the Kutztown Park Bandshell from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Dave Mell has been performing since 1972 all along the eastern Pennsylvania areas. The band will entertain with a blend of Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Rock favorites, and Motown playing the great songs of Janis Joplin, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Wilson Pickett, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Byrds, The Allman Brothers, and many other great groups of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
The band consists of Dave Mell on lead guitar and male vocals, Ellen Mell as lead female vocalist, Tom Montgomery on keyboards, Tom Arnold on bass, Larry Haas on drums, and Greg Moles playing the harmonica. They have delighted area crowds for many years, while giving audiences a wide variety of songs and styles.
After the first concert, and while the Kutztown Park Bandshell is being set-up for the evening con
cert, The Happy Dutchmen German Band, wearing authentic German Lederhosen and Alpine hats, will be playing and entertaining as they stroll the Kutztown Park grounds from 2 to 5 p.m.
The band, under the direction of Bruce Rohrbach, has been performing locally for more than 45 years, to promote the music of Germany/Bavaria, and is comprised of local musicians from the Kutztown and East Penn Valley area. They will play all of the regional favorites, while varying the music from the standard German marches to your favorite polka’s, waltzes and various other German dances.
The evening concert features The Mudflaps – Reunion playing in concert from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the Kutztown Park Bandshell stage.
The Mudflaps had been a long standing performer in the Borough of Kutztown Concert Series over the past 15 years. Briefly separated in 2011, as some played with the great oldies band The 60s Boys in the Borough Concert Series, the Mudflaps reformed in the fall of 2018 with most of the original members of The Mudflaps for a reunion tour of some of their favorite concert sites over the past 35 years.
The Kutztown Day Committee is proud to present The Mudflaps as the feature musical act on stage at the historic and nostalgic Kutztown Park Bandshell.
A crowd favorite since the start of the Borough of Kutztown Concert Series in the Park for many years, The Mudflaps will recreate the sounds of those golden oldies of Rock & Roll on stage with the sounds of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
Under the leadership of Sam Alonge, lead guitar and vocals, The Mudflaps will bring their unique showmanship and vocals to the stage in a tribute to the era of poodle skirts, bobby socks, gathering under the street lights, muscle cars, and those high school dances. They will deliver a high quality vocal and instrumental show that will have you toe tapping and dancing to some of your favorites from the likes of household names and sensations such as: Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, The Righteous Brothers, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, The Blues Brothers, The Platters, Jay Black and the Americans, and many other artists and their hits of that bygone era.
After The Mudflaps concert, grab something to eat and drink as you head down the hillside to the lower park for the sounds of Center City Drive performing on the Flat Bed Stage in the lower park from 7:30 to 9 p.m., prior to the 50/50 drawing and the fireworks.
Center City Drive is a locally formed alternative, Indie Rock and Rhythm and Blues group from the Kutztown area. The band was created by Kutztown University students Tony Destin, Bryan Rojas, Mickey Mester, Kevin Almanza and Dylan Langshwager. The band members were all involved in the music studies at KU as part of the nationally recognized and awarded program for undergraduate rock ensembles.
Center City Drive will entertain the crowd with popular jazz and rock songs, along with some of their original tunes. They recently released their first music video “Death of a Bachelor” on social media alongside their original Ep titled “Test Drive”. The band will entertain with great instrumentals and vocals from 7:30 to 9 p.m., as the crowd gathers on the hillside for the 9 p.m. festivities of the drawing and culminating with the fireworks show at 9:30 p.m.