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Paula Abdul, New Kids on the Block set for Mixtape Festival


The festival happens at Hersheypark Stadium and tickets are still available

Still hold on to that mixtape your middle school crush made you? No, not on your iPod. Not on a CD. We're talking about the even classier mixtape on a cassette tape.

The days of Destiny's Child, Santana, Aaliyah (RIP), Matchbox Twenty.

If that got your ears perked up, then you should be in Hershey on Saturday, Aug. 6 for another year of the popular Mixtape Festival.

In years past, the festival has rounded up artists from our dreamy pasts and got them all together for one day of pure, outdoor, memory-blowing pop music.

And this year's lineup isn't messing around.

For starters, there will be New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees. Dream, the popular, all-girl band will also perform. Their performance comes after announcements to release their first track in years.

Saturday will mark Dream's first performance since 2001.

Ryan Cabrera and O-Town will also perform. In past Mixtape Festivals, there have been no shortages of surprise musical collaborations, including No Kids On The Block performing with Kelly Clarkson.

Also joining them at the festival will be Paula Abdul.

Abdul, 54, was popular back in the day for both her singing and most recently as a judge on the TV show "American Idol." Melissa Stradnick, a public relations manager for Hershey Entertainment, said it's the first time in a long time the star has hit the road to perform.

She has sung on TV shows in recent years, according to Entertainment Tonight, but hasn't performed at a festival for many years.

That makes the lineup a dream come true for some.

"This concert is a great girlfriends day," said Melissa Stradnick, public relations manager for Hershey Entertainment. "This is the one where ladies in their 30s or 40s call their friends and get to re-live their childhood."

The festival's name, after all, is a tribute to the very way many of these groups' fans used to listen to the big hits of the day. This year is the third year of the festival in Hershey, who works with Live Nation in Philadelphia to get the artists.

"It's almost like a throwback," Stradnick said. "For the generation in the 30-age range, they grew up with these artists, listening on their cassette tapes."

If you go

What: Mixtape Festival

When: 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 6

Where: Hersheypark Stadium

Cost: Tickets range from $25 to $79.50

Details: For more information, visit mixtapefestival.com.