180 Bands Set To Rock Gettysburg This Weekend

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Adams County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A three-day music festival will kick off Aug. 8 in Adams County, bringing 180 bands to Gettysburg from 14 states and Washington.

Gettysburg Rocks will feature multiple genres of music including rock, country, blues, folk, ska and reggae, according to Rob Simon, the brainchild of the upcoming festival.

Simon, host of “Under The Radar” on 105.7 The X in Harrisburg, said he got the idea for Gettysburg Rocks from his daughter, Ashley, who was planning a fundraiser for Penn State Mont Alto’s THON group.

Read more: http://www.flipsidepa.com/concerts/ci_26215565/180-bands-set-rock-gettysburg

Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Company Town (Lititz, PA)

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LITITZ, PA—This town of 9,400 people in Amish country tells the story of the modern concert industry.

In 1968, when Frankie Valli and his group rolled in for a show, two young brothers who did sound for local dances turned the Four Seasons into one of the first music acts to tour with its own speaker system. The brothers built a reputation on the road, but they never moved out of Lititz. Their company became an anchor for a cluster of businesses that now supply the sound and spectacle for many of the world’s biggest acts.

The effect that lets pop-star Katy Perry soar over her audience while clutching a bunch of balloons. The battalion of speakers blasting Paul McCartney’s voice in stadiums designed for sports, not music. The sliding catwalk that takes a singing, dancing Justin Timberlake from the stage to the rear of an arena. All this gear, currently crisscrossing America in tractor-trailers, was engineered and built in Lititz, along with the apparatus for blockbuster tours of the past by U2, the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Michael Jackson. The place has an air of secrecy: Because entertainers want a surprise when the curtain goes up, much of the work here is done in secret by companies that don’t put their names on their buildings.

Once wired with tinny speakers and harsh lights, the world of live entertainment is now powered by computer systems that control sophisticated video displays on sets worth tens of millions of dollars.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/rock-n-rolls-company-town-1407452570?tesla=y

The 10 Most Exciting Small Cities In America

Editor’s note:  Lancaster is number 4!  We agree!

Not everyone can live in Oakland, CA. But after the Movoto Real Estate Blog named it the Most Exciting City in America earlier this year, it seemed like everyone in the Bay Area was thinking about giving it a shot. For some people, though, big cities just aren’t their thing. They enjoy the lifestyle that comes with living in a smaller city–but that doesn’t mean they don’t like to have fun.

With that in mind, and given the fact that we’ve been looking more at small cities and suburbs lately, we decided it was time to look at excitement on a smaller scale. We set out to apply our mathematical methods to ranking the Most Exciting Small Cities in America–places that might be scaled down in size, but where people can still do some really big things.

What did we find? We’re sure the passionate citizens of New Jersey will be happy to learn that their very own Hoboken, NJ took the (flashing, noise-making, spinning) crown of excitement after our results had been tallied.

The birthplace of baseball–a sport whose degree of excitement varies depending on who you talk to–headed up a diverse top 10 of miniature metros.

Read more: http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/most-exciting-small-cities/#ixzz30R5pVbwz