Get down and groovy this Saturday at annual Winchenstock Music Festival

The annual Winchenstock Music Festival will be held this Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Winchendon Community Park to raise money for the Winchendon Community Action Committee.

Over 300 people from all around the Greater Gardner area are expected to attend the event. Gates will open at noon and the first performance starts at 12:30 p.m. The festival ends at 8 p.m.

Children 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult who purchased a general admission ticket to get free admission. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate on Saturday.

Miranda Jennings, the Winchendon CAC executive director, said the goal this year is to collect at least $5,000 or $6,000.

"We are grateful for LaPointe Law Firm, all the bands that are playing, and everybody that comes and supports us," she said. "This is probably the biggest fundraiser event that we do all year so it's really important for us."

Music lineup

Five local musicians and bands will perform at this year's Winchenstock Music Festival.

The first musician on stage will be Maggie Neff , who will perform classic rock music and originals. She will start at 12:30 p.m. Following Neff at 1:30 p.m. is TWO for the ROAD, a classic rock cover band that will play music from the '60s, '70s and '80s. The next band is Fistful of Karma , who will play at 3 p.m. They are a classic rock cover band that performs covers of a wide range of musicians, from Elvis to Aerosmith.

The last band to perform will be BIG RanDom , a locally well-known rock band. They will perform music from both Woodstock 1969 and Woodstock 1994 at 5 p.m.

Local bites, brews, and kid-friendly activities

Food and drinks are not included in the purchase of a ticket, but there will be local options for classic summer festival food, from hot dogs to burgers and barbecue.

For the first time this year, The Grateful Dog , an Ayer-based hot dog food truck, will offer all-beef specialty hot dogs. The Proud & Country BBQ, the local BBQ pop-up tent, will once again offer barbecue food. Also, LaPointe Catering will grill burgers and have several fried food options.

The HEAL Sunshine Cafe will sell lemonade, water, soda and a wide variety of snacks. The Wachusett Brewing Company will also have a craft brew pour tent for the 21 and older crowd.

Jennings said there will be free children's activities during the music festival, such as tie-dye, a crafts table, and a bounce house. She said people can also buy tickets to participate in the raffle.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Get down and groovy this Saturday at annual Winchenstock Music Festival