Petaluma Music Festival opens July 31 with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

This time of year, music festivals pop up all over the landscape, and many of them are similar, but some of have a character all their own. The Petaluma Music Festival, now in its eighth year, still has the drive and momentum of what began as a one-man crusade.

In 2008, Petaluma High School band instructor Cliff Eveland, concerned about the future of school music programs, started the festival to raise money for them, and it worked. In the past five years, the festival has raised more than $125,000 to keep music education programs going in Petaluma area public schools.

This year’s two-day festival opens Friday, July 31, with a pefromance by swing and jive band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at 7:30 p.m. at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds, 175 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma. Tickets cost $35-$115 in advance. or $45-$125 the day of the show.

More than a dozen acts, ranging in style from hip hop and blues to folk and rock, will perform on Saturday, Aug. 1, with the fairgrounds gates opening at noon. Saturday’s headliners are Nahko and the Medicine, the Wood Brothers and ALO.

The lineup Saturday also includes SambaDa, Rainbow Girls, Dixie Giants, Midnight North, Coffis Brothers, Buck Nickels and Loose Change, Dylan Chambers and Midnight Transit, Lumanation, Belly Gunner, Arizona the Volunteers, Twice as Good and singer-songwriter Jenny Kerr.

Saturday’s event also will feature a silent auction, a celebrity-autographed guitar raffle, a kids area and food, craft and merchandise vendors. Ticket for Saturday cost $40 in advance and $50 the day of the show.

On both days, children age 12 and younger will be admitted free with a paying adult, and students ages 13-17 can purchase $20 tickets at the door.

For tickets and information: petalumamusicfestival.org.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.