The secret to getting the most out of Musikfest may just be in the palm of your hand.
Musikfest has unveiled a free mobile app that allows festers to browse 515 performances by day of show or platz venue and use an interactive festival map to navigate between 15 stages, 60 food vendors and 40 craft stands.
The GPS technology in the app provides not only directions but walking times.
Want to stop for a mug of Yuengling's Oktoberfest at the Musikfest Café in SteelStacks Saturday, Aug. 4 before you head over to the Sublime with Rome concert at the Sands Steel Stage? Allow yourself 3-10 minutes after you get your suds. Do you want to take your kids to check out the Cat's Pajamas at 12:30 p.m. on Banana Island before sampling the mystical arts of Tibet at Volksplatz? Give your family 13-17 minutes.
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Looking for your friends among the hundreds of thousands expected to turn out for Musikfest each day? Texting is so yesterday. Instead, hit the beer mug icon when you fill up and, for registered users, you'll post your location to your Twitter or Facebook accounts. Let your friends find you.
The app, developed by Trifecta Technologies of Allentown, also allows festers to map their own itineraries and share them on their social media accounts.
Think of it as a way-finding sign on steroids.
Curt Mosel, an ArtsQuest vice president, said the app helps newbies and seasoned festers find venues that best cater to their tastes in a festival that dramatically changed its footprint when it expanded last year to the South Side.
"At this point, I know the festival far better than I ever have before," Mosel said after playing with the app for 2 1/2 hours the first day he got it.
From Lollapalooza in Chicago to the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College, Centre County, festivals across the country have been introducing similar apps as a way to help navigate the large festivals and help organizers gather information on what their patrons like.
Michael Corr, director of marketing at Trifecta Technologies, said the reason why it is so helpful is that it helps festers sift through mounds of information about so many venues they'll never have time to get to.
"It creates a personal experience," he said.
The app menu breaks the festival into categories that include the day's schedule, platzes, artists, vendors, map and mug-finder feature.
The information includes biographies of all the artists, parking information, promotions and, under the new app version unveiled this week, the first Musikfest game. Like a scavenger hunt, users can search for 12 "stickers" that are collected by using certain features of the app, for example, registering their social media accounts for the first time.
Musikfest organizers are not giving away all the secrets but said the game is a fun way to get people introduced to the new technology.
It's only available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, but ArtsQuest officials say Android-powered devices could be online as early as next year.
Six hours before the festival kicked off Friday, there were more than 8,500 downloads and 2,950 of them registered their social media accounts with the app.
But the discerning Musikfest goer also will likely want to download a couple more free apps developed for Bethlehem.
The Bethlehem Parking Authority unveiled a new service last month that allows people to use their cell phones to pay for parking meters. The service allows motorists to put more money on the meter via cell phone and use their cell phone to turn off the meter when the leave. That way they won't be charged for unused minutes, a 35-cent transaction fee per use.
While pay-by-cell service works for smart and flip-phone users, patrons who download the app on their smart phones will be able check how much time is on the meter periodically and be sent coupons for businesses close to where they park.
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