Local music fans who turn up to see The Flaming Lips open Musikfest on Friday evening may recognize a few familiar faces kicking off the show.
Bethlehem-based indie rock band VoirVoir will open for CHAPPO and The Flaming Lips, according to the festival's website. Doors open at 5 p.m. The band is scheduled for 6 p.m.
VoirVoir's set on the Sands Steel Stage is one of four festival performances the group has lined up. They are also slated for 2:30 p.m. Aug. 15 on the Plaza Tropical stage and 5:30 and 7 p.m. Aug. 15 on the Main Street stage. The group was one of four acts selected by Freedom High School students to perform at Musikfest, as part of ArtsQuest's "Marketing Musikfest" program.
Fellow Bethlehem rockers Eighteenth Hour, who were chosen by Liberty High School students through the "Marketing Musikfest" program, will open for 3 Doors Down and Collective Soul on Aug. 13. The band is also scheduled for Aug. 8 on the Plaza Tropical stage.
Veteran guitarist Craig Thatcher, of Coopersburg, and his trio will open the Aug. 12 ZZ Top concert on the Sands Steel Stage. Thatcher headlined the main stage on the opening night of the 2014 Musikfest celebration, where he performed his tribute to the music of the Allman Brothers Band. (Thatcher replaced originally scheduled headliners ZZ Top that year after the latter canceled their appearance due to bassist Dusty Hill's then-impending kidney surgery.) Thatcher's band is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Musikfest is Aug. 7-16 in Bethlehem.