Nearly a dozen local bands will perform bluegrass, traditional and old-time mountain music Saturday when Piedmont College kicks off its Piedmont College Bluegrass Festival in Demorest.

The festivities begins at 11 a.m. at the new Arrendale Amphitheater, 359 College Drive (off of Georgia Street), on the Piedmont campus. Admission is $10; children 5 and younger and Piedmont students, faculty and staff are free.

The event will be emceed by Piedmont theater professor Henry "Doc" Johnson of the Mountain Music & Medicine Show. The day’s lineup includes the Buzzard Mountain Boys at 11 a.m., John Oliver & Carmel Ridge at 12:15 p.m., The Solstice Sisters at 1:30 p.m., Curtis Blackwell & the Dixie Bluegrass Boys at 2:45 p.m., Mountain Hoodoo at 4 p.m., BlueBilly Grit at 5:15 p.m. and the Foxfire Boys at 6:30 p.m.

At 8 p.m., Johnson and the Mountain Music & Medicine Show will take the stage for a performance featuring the Musselwhite Family, Hawkproof Rooster, American Honey and the Wild Turkeys. Originating in Dahlonega, the Mountain Music & Medicine Show has won three GABBY awards from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters for the best locally produced radio program in the State of Georgia.

The Arrendale Amphitheater, which opened this past fall adjacent to the Swanson Center for Performing Arts and Communications, features open-air stadium seating with room for folding chairs or cushions and coolers. No alcoholic beverages allowed, but concessions will be available.