A 20-year tradition before finals week will take place this Saturday in Oil City.

The 20th annual Rock-N-Reggae festival will take place at Salt River Acres, 926 S. Greendale Road.

Kris Carr, co-owner with her husband of Salt River Acres, where the event is taking place, began doing this because it was something fun to do.

“We never really anticipated it being this popular,” Carr said, “We did it because it’s fun to do and a really nice outlet, and we really enjoy what we do.”

Oil City is between Midland and Mount Pleasant, and the gates for the event open at 10 a.m., with music beginning at noon.

“There is only one break of music during the day, and during that break, we bring out a T-shirt can and give out prizes,” Carr said.

The festival features two stages, Carr said, and there will free merchandise from the bands given away.

“We get to reconnect with students who have come in past years, and they always thank us for putting on this event,” Carr said. “And that makes us happy that we can do that for people.”

Each year, Carr said, usually seven bands are hired to perform at the event.

“We begin previewing bands starting in the fall-we usually get about 120-125 bands that submit to be hired for this,” Carr said.

Carr and her husband listen to each band 3 times, and narrow it down to pick the ones they think are ready to play at an event like this.

The performances this year will be The Dirty Americans, Harper, Immunity, Glowb, Boogie Matrix Mechanism, Nuroksol and Lies Unknown.

Tickets for the event will be available at the gate for $50, and parking is $5 per vehicle, unless there are four or more people in a vehicle. To encourage car-pooling, Carr said, parking is free for vehicles with four or more people in them.

The festival will end at 10 p.m. For more information, visit saltriveracres.net.

metro@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Vanessa Fayz