A diverse line-up is expected for the first Thoroughbred Music and Arts Festival, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
The festival is presented by Rob Penland, of Aiken's Mad Music Productions, and Cyndy and Barry Olliff, of Aiken's Stable View equestrian center. The event will be held at Stable View, 117 Stable Drive.
Tickets are $20 for one day, $35 for a two-day pass and $75 for VIP tickets, which serves as a two-day pass with preferred parking and an invitation to an after-party on Saturday with the bands. Ticket outlets include Party Tyme in the Country Square, 1864 Huntsman Drive; What's Cookin' Downtown, 123 Laurens St. N.W.; and Ridgecrest Coffee Bar, 2502 Wagener Road.
Proceeds will benefit the festival's local charitable partners: Area Churches Together Serving, Palmetto Animal Welfare Services and STAR Riding.
The gates and art market will open at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
Saturday's line-up starts at noon and will include 2/3 Goat, a New York "metro-billy" group; The High Divers, a Charleston rock/Americana band; Zombie Garden Club, a Nashville blues-based musician; Chase Martin, a Charleston singer with "a soulful, country and a rock and roll edge"; Danielle Howle, a "punk rock girl with the voice of a honkeytonk angel" from Awendaw; and headliner Carrie Rodriguez, a Texan country/Spanish singer.
Sunday's music will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will feature Manmade Mountains, a folk rock/alternative Americana band from Athens, Georgia; Morgan's Road, a South Carolina, "funky and soulful jam rock" band; Greye, a Daytona Beach progressive Americana group; Elijah Ocean, a Los Angeles-based alternative county musician; and headliner Devon Allman, a blues/rock/soul artist from Missouri whose father is Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.
For more information or directions, visit www.tbredfest.org or call 347-687-4279.
Stephanie Turner graduated from Valdosta State University in 2012.
She then signed on with the Aiken Standard, where she is now the arts and entertainment reporter.