Live music, student performances and fireworks are a few of the highlights of the Starlight Celebration and Concert this year.

The University of North Georgia will host its annual event Saturday, Aug. 27, at the G.W. Bailey Amphitheater on the Gainesville Campus at 3820 Mundy Mill Road in Oakwood. Gates will be open from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The entry fee is $10 per car or $20 per bus, van or larger. UNG students’ entrance is free with a valid UNG student parking permit. Tables for six may be reserved for $100, which includes two event parking passes. All proceeds from the event will support UNG students.

Special parking is available for those who have state-issued accessible parking permits. All other guests will need to park in regular event parking and walk to the site. Seating is not provided and guests may bring chairs or blankets.

“This year is the first year we’ve had it in August. It’s previously been held earlier in the summer,” said Richard Oates, vice president of UNG’s Gainesville campus. “We wanted to move it to August this year to put it at the end of our Welcome Week so that we could celebrate the return of our students and faculty and staff and celebrate the beginning of our fall semester and also help to celebrate our community.”

A DJ will start playing music at 4:30 p.m. and other musical performances begin at 6 p.m. The DJ will play between performances and during the fireworks at dark.

“The DJ will keep playing after students finish performing,” Oates said. “The DJ is going to keep playing music until we go out with a bang.”

This year the event will feature student performers. For example, the student jazz combo, the women’s jazz vocal ensemble and theater students singing numbers from their upcoming season are among the scheduled performances for the evening.

“We want to showcase the phenomenal students that we have to the community,” Oates said. “We’ve got some very talented students and what a way to celebrate what they’re doing than to have them perform for the community and display their phenomenal talents.”

Oates said the Starlight Celebration is a great way for the community and university to interact.

“We’re a community-engaged university,” he said. “Any opportunity that we get to engage our community in what’s going on in the campus, get them on the campus, see what our students are doing, I think is a positive for both the community and the university.”

The rain date for Starlight is Saturday, Sept. 10. For more information, visit www.ung.edu/starlight.