ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The last time Kendal Conrad saw a grandstand concert at the Great Allentown Fair, she was a high school student in the crowd on tickets someone else didn’t want. On Friday, she will be the one on stage.
Conrad, a pop-country singer-songwriter from Pottstown, is scheduled to open for Hershey native Warren Zeiders at the fair grandstand at 7 p.m. Sept. 4. It is also her 35th birthday.
The booking caps a year in which the independent artist has opened for the Bacon Brothers and Air Supply, sung the national anthem for the Chicago Bulls and closed in on a self-set goal of 250 anthem performances in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“It took me 18 years, I guess, and now I’m up there, which is crazy,” Conrad said Wednesday in an interview with Lehigh Daily. “Full circle.”
A borrowed ticket in 2008
Conrad said she placed second in a karaoke contest at the fair in 2008 singing a Whitney Houston song. The winner, she said, received grandstand tickets to see pop-punk band Simple Plan and had no interest in going.
“She was like, ‘I don’t want these, I don’t know who they are,’” Conrad said. “She gave me her tickets, so in 2008 I was in the crowd at the grandstand.”
Simple Plan headlined the fair grandstand that year with Metro Station opening, according to a contemporaneous account of the 2008 fair.
Conrad said she hopes to work a Whitney Houston song into Friday’s set as a nod to her 18-year-old self.
A longer set and new material
Conrad said she has a 45-minute set, from 7 to 7:45 p.m., longer than she typically gets as an opener. She said she plans to use the time to play more of her original songs, some unreleased material and covers she doesn’t usually perform.
“I have 45 minutes,” she said. “I can do things that I don’t normally get to do.”
Conrad said she performs only original songs she has co-written and that a former English major’s attachment to writing shapes her work. Asked what she wants first-time listeners to take away, she pointed to her own upbringing as a shy kid.
“You’re not alone in anything that you’re going through,” she said. “I like to make people feel seen because I never felt seen.”
Conrad said landing a grandstand opening slot involves layers of approvals and a measure of luck. Years ago, she said, she was offered a chance to open for Miranda Lambert at the fair before the deal fell through at the final step.
From a Musikfest duet to Bridgestone Arena
Conrad has been a fixture in Lehigh Valley music for more than a decade. In 2014, she was chosen from video auditions to sing “We Were Us” on stage with Keith Urban at Musikfest in Bethlehem, a performance she said remains her biggest brush with celebrity. She ranks Friday’s show second.
The fair bills Conrad as the show’s special guest and credits her with opening for more than 50 country artists, including Blake Shelton, Alabama, Kane Brown and Chris Young. According to the fair, she has sung the anthem for seven NBA teams, 18 MLB teams and two NFL teams.
Last month she opened two Bacon Brothers shows at SunnyBrook Ballroom in Pottstown, her second run with the group after a 2025 date at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center.
Conrad said she had sung the anthem 216 times as of Wednesday and expects to hit 250 by December. She said upcoming bookings include Monster Jam in Seattle next month and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s annual dinner, where comedian Kevin Hart is the keynote speaker. The chamber has scheduled that dinner for Oct. 5 at the Hershey Lodge.
The day after the fair, Conrad said, she flies to Nashville, Tenn., to sing the anthem Sept. 6 at the Broadway Block Party volleyball tournament at Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators. She said she used to play guitar at a bar outside the arena before Predators games.
“Now I’m actually in there singing,” she said.
Conrad said she has no plans for the birthday beyond the show. “I’m a Virgo, so ‘go with the flow’ is not a thing that I do,” she said. “But I guess we’re going to go with the flow on this one.”
If you go
The Great Allentown Fair runs Sept. 2-7 at the Allentown Fairgrounds, 302 N. 17th St., Allentown. Doors for the Zeiders show open at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Tickets are $61 for reserved grandstand, $71 for reserved track and grandstand, and $81 for the pit at the fair box office, fees included. Ticketmaster purchases may carry additional fees. All show tickets include fair admission.
Zeiders, 26, is touring behind his 2025 album “Relapse, Lies & Betrayal.” His single “Pretty Little Poison” reached No. 1 on country radio in 2024.