Parts of the site of a popular Lehigh Valley music festival in the City of Bethlehem flooded Saturday morning, but Musikfest reopened in time for concerts in the afternoon and evening.
The festival runs through all next week, with ticketed acts — including Gary Clark Jr. and Grouplove — and free concerts.
Video of the flooding showed the Monocacy Creek overflowing in three of the venues where Musikfest was being held this weekend. Those sites are Handwerk Platz, Familienplatz and Volksplatz.
The main site, at Steel Stacks, was not flooded. But at Handwerk Platz, some craft vendors said the work of months was being swept away by the water.
"That's my entire business. I run that out of my house," said Kate Brown, who owns a craft business called Rustic Wrapsody. She makes handmade jewelry, soy candles and tile strikers -- which are made from matches.
She knows the matches are ruined. "Yep, that's my life, right there," she said, guesturing to her tent, which was in rising water.
It's hard for crafters to get insurance for their work, she said -- in part because of the dangers of outdoor venues. "It's not just the product, it's the hours and hours" of work that the product represents.
"Preparing for this show alone I probably spent a month worth of product," Brown said.
The three flooded venues remained closed Saturday. Organizers said they would update the public Sunday about when they could reopen.
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Officials in Freemansburg, downriver from the festival, warned residents on Facebook that debris such as "coolers, equipment and porta-johns" were floating down the river from the festival.
For more information, go to the music festival's website or its Facebook and Twitter pages.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
