American rock festival often credited as NEARfest, operates in parallel with NEARfest Records
Two-day event celebrating the resurgence of progressive and eclectic music in the United States and around the world.
The event was held annually in June in the Greater Philadelphia area. The festival was founded in the spring of 1998 by Robert LaDuca and Chad Hutchinson, with the first event occurring in 1999. NEARfest has quickly grown to become "the most prestigious progressive music festival in the world". In 2002, NEARfest relocated to Trenton, New Jersey, for a couple of years. It returned to Bethlehem in July 2004. Rob & Chad retired following NEARfest X in June 2008, and stewardship was passed to Jim Robinson, Ray Loboda, and Kevin Feeley.
On October 17, 2011, founders Hutchinson and LaDuca, and production manager Kevin Feeley announced that the final edition of the festival, entitled NEARfest Apocalypse, would take place on the weekend of June 22, 23, and 24, 2012 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.