ABOUT BETHLEHEM EVENTS

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to promote pride and community spirit among residents, enhance Bethlehem’s image, attract new residents, businesses and visitors, and improve the social and economic well-being of residents of Bethlehem. Bethlehem Events accomplishs the goal of strengthening the vibrancy and activity of the Bethlehem community by recommending, overseeing, and organizing an annual portfolio of cultural and recreational special events, programs and activities.

About Bethlehem Events Artwalk Activities

OUR TRACK RECORD

We are a team of innovators and community leaders with decades of experience and one cohesive vision. With several years of aggressive guerilla marketing strategies under its belt, Bethlehem Events has successfully gained state-level exposure for our community events. Every one of our festivals delivers an economic boost to Bethlehem with several businesses reporting benchmark sales during our festivals. We give the tourists a reason to stop and explore our town as they are traveling along Route 302. With publications such as Union Leader, Newsweek Magazine, NHPR, multiple appearances on television, radio, and local newspapers, our outreach work promoting the town of Bethlehem has a lasting effect. Many families from outside the region now make it a point to schedule their vacations around our events, delivering tourism dollars directly into the local lodging and hospitality industry.

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bethlehem Events is a completely volunteer non-profit organization that works year-round planning and scheduling events that are fun for the whole family, and almost always free for the community. As individuals and as an organization, we are passionately invested in our community. We work together to help others see what we see in Bethlehem with the hopes that other community members are also inclined to get involved with the direct actions we perform to market and drive interest in our town in a tangible and measurable way.

JACK ANDERSON

PRESIDENT

Jack has been the Bethlehem Fire Chief for over 50 years and is the founder of Christmas in Bethlehem over a decade ago. He has a long, rich history as a resident and community leader.

PHIL BELL

VICE PRESIDENT

Longtime resident and business owner, Phil Bell owns Beech Hill Auto, spearheaded the restoration of our broken town pool, and hosts classic car shows and drive-in movies during the summer months.

ANGEL LARCOM

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Owner of Larcom Studios, Founder of 42 Maple Art Center, and Co-Founder of Bethlehem Art Walk, Angel has been directly involved with countless vibrancy projects in Bethlehem and the greater region for over 15 years.

CASEY BONILLA

TREASURER

Music industry veteran, stage manager, tour manager, and mother of five, Casey has been active and involved with a multitude of community and educational events and organizations for over 10 years.

SEAN GAWLIK

DIRECTOR

Owner of AHI Salvage and founder of the Vintage Market in the White Mountains, Sean has lived in Bethlehem for over 15 years and been the Bethlehem Little League coach for nearly a decade.

Our History

After several years of organizing multiple annual events, it became clear that a handful of key players were working together with great crossover on each activity and festival. It made sense to bring some formal organization to our ongoing efforts and create structural cohesion so that we could be more streamlined and effective with our energy. We gathered together in 2018 and began discussing what such an organization would look like, how many events and activities we already organized and how best to move forward. IN our first year, we were granted fiscal sponsorship by the North Country Educational Radio organization in Littleton, as we had similar community-driven roots. That generous support allowed us to begin seeking donations and sponsorship from local and regional entities and build our base. At the same time, we applied for a federal 501(c)3 status with the IRS, which we received within the year.

Just as we began to gain momentum, COVID-19 struck in early 2020 and brought all of our seasonal plans to a screeching halt. Because our group is so small, we didn’t feel that we could comfortably host large-scale community events that would keep our attendees as safe as possible. We made the hard decision to table everything and take a wait-and-see attitude.

We certainly didn’t expect that the pause button would last over a year. Our dormancy period allowed us to regroup, streamline and simplify our organizational processes.

Thankfully, we were able to find a way to keep the weekly Gazebo Concert series going during the pandemic. Our partnership with the Bethlehem Recreation Department on this weekly, summer concert series has been seamless and more concerts will return in the summer of 2021. Although this year will provide a shortened season, we are very excited to announce our lineup in the coming weeks.

Because vaccinations have begun to roll out in earnest, our plan is to bring our festivals and events back by the end of 2021, starting with the BOOthlehem Halloween Bash in October 2021. Christmas in Bethlehem will also return on the first Sat of December 2021. Summerfest and the Bethlehem Artwalk are scheduled to return in August 2022.