The Waukegan Park District’s 17th Annual Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Fine Arts Festival will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at Bowen Park, corner of Sheridan Road and Greenwood Avenue, in Waukegan.

This free, grass-roots festival is a family event for all ages presented by the Waukegan Park District’s Cultural Arts Division, with sponsorship support from the Waukegan Arts Council, Waukegan Historical Society, Mark Harms of Edward Jones, Cribb Fine Foods, Waukegan Main Street, Uline and Harry E. Came.

The festival is an annual event celebrating the start of summer. It is dedicated to showcasing local and regional artists and venues, championing the arts, remaining free to the public, and remembering one of Waukegan’s favorite sons: author and visionary Ray Bradbury.

The festival features multiple music and entertainment stages, as well as family activities, including creative art projects.

This year at the festival, more than 35 artists and crafters will be found on “Artist’s Lane” displaying their fine art or conducting demonstrations, instructing, and selling art.

A tradition at the festival is the Community Art Project. This year, attendees will help create a large festival masterpiece titled “Favorite Bug!” Activities at the Children’s Entertainment Area will include projects for kids to create and take home. Waukegan High School art students will showcase their talents at a new section of the festival called “Young Artist’s Lane.”

The festival’s outdoor Pavilion Music Stage will feature a variety of musical bands and performers throughout the day, headlined at 4:30 p.m. by Los Perros Cubanos.

The indoor Acoustic Stage at the Schornick Theatre will feature a variety of talented acoustic music performers throughout the day, headlined from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. by “Jazzman” Jeff’s Lake County Acoustic Music Jam.

All festival attendees may bring an acoustic guitar, five string banjo, fiddle, harmonica, acoustic bass or their voice to participate in this spontaneous folk/folk-country/

folk-rock/bluegrass music jam.

Back by popular demand is the outdoor Bradbury Theatre Stage at the Bowen Park Gazebo. This stage will feature ongoing theater, improv, storytelling and poetry performances. A special performance on this stage will feature Waukegan High School students reading Ray Bradbury’s “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” at noon.

The outdoor Children’s Entertainment Stage will feature a variety of performers throughout the day geared toward younger festival attendees, and a community Drum Circle, presented by Helen Bond and her drumming troupe, begins at 3:30 p.m. The Drum Circle is an annual favorite that allows attendees to participate in facilitated rhythmic drumming. Participants may bring their own drum, percussion, and rhythm instruments.

Programs and events sponsored by the Waukegan Park District Cultural Arts Division are provided in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state of Illinois agency.

For more information, call the Waukegan Park District Jack Benny Center for the Arts at (847) 360-4740. The Jack Benny Center is at 39 Jack Benny Drive in Bowen Park.