12th annual Carrboro Music Festival

Once a year businesses in downtown Carrboro open their doors for the day-long festival that serves as a free sampler of the Carrboro-Chapel Hill music scene. This year 24 venues ranging from RBC Centura to Armadillo Grill will host more than 160 performances throughout the compact area with the earliest kicking off at 1 p.m. and the latest at 11 p.m.

There is something for almost anyone as featured genres range from Americana to hip-hop to improvisational jazz.

For fans of classic bluegrass, Big Fat Gap will play at Fifth Season Gardening/Glasshalfull at 6:15 p.m.

Folk rock duo Birds & Arrows, which has a similar sound to M. Ward and the milder ballads of The Avett Brothers, will perform at Open Eye Café at 7 p.m.

Listeners of Jucifer and Mastodon will find solace in Caltrop at the Rock Stage at Southern Rail at 9:15 p.m.

For a full performance schedule visit here.

As for traveling to the festival, UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus is a little over a half mile to the area and Chapel Hill Transit buses run regularly for free with Carrboro stops on routes. Triangle Transportation Authority bus routes run from anywhere else in the Triangle and a free bio-diesel shuttle will run from a park and ride lot at Carrboro Plaza from noon to 8 p.m.