Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 4 and Sunday, October 5 for the first of the season Jordan Lake Arts & Music Festival. Seventeen of North Carolina’s finest musicians and artists will be featured, including the Steep Canyon Rangers, The John Brown Quintet, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty, Big Fat Gap and The Urban Sophisticates.

Arts and crafts will be on exhibit the whole weekend and food for every palette will be available — bring your instruments too, because there’ll be lots of opportunities for jamming.

To help raise awareness of water pollution, there will be several environmental agencies, the Sierra Club and the Haw River Assembly. High levels of pollution from wastewater plants and from runoff that causes algal blooms and extreme chemical conditions all affect Jordan Lake—these agencies will offer information, accept donations and volunteers.

Gates open at 9 a.m. on Saturday Oct. 4, and will close that evening at 7:30p.m. They will reopen the following morning, Oct. 5, with the same schedule. Camping at the local campsites around Jordan Lake is encouraged. For Further information on campsites, music schedule and band bios, visit: www.jordanlakefarm.org.