Bomb threat at Bethlehem’s Musikfest leads to arrest

Police say that a Bethlehem man has been arrested and charged with threatening to explode a bomb at Musikfest, the popular Lehigh Valley festival that annually draws massive crowds.

A statement posted on Facebook by the Bethlehem Police Department identified the suspect as Robert “Bob” Bowen, who had threatened to detonate a homemade device sometime on Thursday.

On Friday, Bethlehem police acting in concert with the Bethlehem Fire Department Bomb Squad, the Lehigh County Municipal Emergency Response Team, and the FBI’s Allentown office “quickly” investigated and arrested the man at his residence near Lehigh University.

They were also able to link him to a series of recent explosions in the area, the statement said.

The statement was vague on details, saying only that police were acting on “information passed onto the department from our community members.” A Bethlehem police spokesperson said Saturday that no further information was being released yet.

Musikfest opened on Thursday and will run through Aug. 13. Officials at ArtsQuest, the local nonprofit organization that operates the festival, were told of the threat only after the suspect was in custody.

“We were advised that Musikfest should continue, and there was no further danger,” said Jennifer LoConte, ArtsQuest’s director of communications. “That’s thanks to the police department’s world-class response.”

Musikfest, one of the largest unticketed music festivals in the nation, has brought a wide variety of acts to Bethlehem since its inception in 1984. Organizers say that in some recent years, attendance has topped a million. This year’s lineup includes such acts as Walk the Moon, Train, the Goo-Goo Dolls, and comedian Gabriel Iglesias.

Last year a shooting occurred on one Saturday night of the concert, but police described it as an “isolated incident,” according to the Allentown Morning Call. Police provided no details of the shooting, but reportedly festival goers described a “stampede”-like scene as crowds fled the area near Main and Lehigh Streets.

Otherwise, the festival evidently has proceeded peacefully through the years.

Still, said LoConte, “as always, we do encourage the public: If they see something, say something.”