Bethlehem, Lehigh Valley, PA. November 9, 2026 – ArtsQuest is thrilled to announce the second Musikfest 2027 headliner, Death Cab for Cutie, will be coming to the Wind Creek Steel Stage at PNC Plaza for a preview night on Thursday, August 5, 2027.
Ticket access begins today, Monday, November 9 for ArtsQuest Members and Friday, November 13 for the general public at ArtsQuest.org. For more exclusive ticket access and advance purchase opportunities, become an ArtsQuest Member or Circle Donor today.
Death Cab for Cutie’s 11th studio album, “I Built You a Tower,” marks a return to the band’s independent roots. Its lead single, “Riptides,” became the group’s ninth No. 1 song at Adult Alternative radio.
In recent years, Death Cab for Cutie has celebrated several major milestones, including sold out tours commemorating the 20th anniversaries of the landmark albums “Transatlanticism” and “Plans.”
“I Built You a Tower” finds the band reconciling with its past while charting a new path forward. “The anniversary tours exorcised any nostalgia in our systems,” Dave Depper said. “We felt part of this powerful force greater than all of us and went into the studio with a sense of, how can we capture that feeling and put it into something new?”
Harmer added, “The whole experience of this record got us back to the earliest versions of this band: If the musicians in the room like what we’re working on, that’s enough. We reconnected with the confidence that comes with that.”
Rather than a familiar “return to form” narrative, the album reclaims a core ethos that has defined Death Cab for Cutie throughout its 30-year history.
About Musikfest
A total of 1,260,630 people attended Musikfest in 2026. The 10-day festival featured over 400 free performances across 16 stages located throughout both the north and south-sides of Bethlehem. The 44th Musikfest is scheduled for August 6 – August 15, 2027. This year’s Musikfest 2027 poster artist is Lehigh Valley illustrator and graphic designer Kelly Sulca Hernandez. Inspired in part by seek-and-find illustrations and books, Sulca Hernandez reimagines Bethlehem as a vibrant music city, with performers perched atop amplifiers, speakers and turntables, festivalgoers filling the streets and hidden details waiting to be discovered. To see the poster and learn more about Sulca Hernandez’s vision for it, along with information about the festival, visit artsquest.org/musikfest.
About ArtsQuest
ArtsQuest’s mission is to provide access to exceptional artistic, cultural and educational experiences using arts and culture as key elements of economic development for our urban communities. ArtsQuest™ supports this mission via the presentation of performing and visual arts, film, arts education classes and outreach, youth programming and cultural events. Through festivals such as its flagship event, Musikfest; the ArtsQuest Creative Factory powered by PPL; and the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks arts and cultural campus, ArtsQuest’s programming reaches more than 1.9 million people annually. The organization’s programs and events, of which nearly 40 percent are free to attend, have a combined economic impact of more than $136 million annually in the region.