Música Franklin will host its sixth annual Fun Fest at Unity Park in Turners Falls on Saturday, May 11, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. This free festival will feature world-class musical performances, entertainment, and crafts for the whole family. You can try out instruments in the musical petting zoo, play with giant bubbles, create a make-and-take craft project, get your face painted, enjoy a lot of music, and much more.

Música Franklin offers an immersive after-school program for youth in Franklin County. The program aims to prepare students for a better future through music. It holds classes in Greenfield and Turners Falls. Students meet three-to-four times per week to learn singing, drumming, and either violin, viola, cello or bass. In addition, they participate in social justice discussions every week. All of the programs are free.

“We are a very community-based organization, and we have a lot of partners across western Mass, and we just wanted to do something free for families and people of all ages,” said Orice Jenkins, the executive director of Música Franklin, on the roots of Fun Fest.

The festival promises to deliver unique experiences that will captivate and entertain everybody. Each year they try and bring in new and different acts. They have added Balloon Ben, a balloon artist from Pittsfield who can make hundreds of creations out of balloons. This year’s fest will also welcome Art Space, which will be on hand to offer a participatory art project. Attendees can also grab a bite from the food trucks that will be on site.

Annierose Klingbeil, development and communications manager for Música Franklin, notes that the event has grown over the years as they work to bring the community together.

They do this in part by bringing in world-class musicians who not only display incredible musical talent but also bring with them messages of equity, inclusion and social justice that align with Música Franklin’s goals.

This year’s headliners are The RapOet, an acclaimed hip-hop artist from Hartford, Connecticut, who uses rap music to educate and convey positive messages. He will be joined by rapper/lyricist Bap Pack, who is also from Hartford.

The other main act is the Afro-Semitic Experience, a unique, genre-blending band from New Haven, Connecticut. They combine jazz, blues, gospel, Jewish liturgical, and klezmer music with elements of African and Middle Eastern rhythms. The band describes its uplifting music as spiritual, world-beat, soulful jazz.

These two headline acts, who both tour nationally, are performing in Turners Falls thanks to a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).

NEFA allowed Música Franklin to choose two New England-based acts to perform at this event; the only criteria NEFA had was that they not be from your own state.

“As part of the community portion of the grant, The Afro-Semitic Experience came and did a workshop with the kids, and they are going to actually perform with them at the festival,” explained Jenkins, who is himself a musician who has played with the Afro-Semitic Experience in the past, about the NEFA program.

Bassist Dr. David Chevan, who resides in New Haven but grew up in Amherst, is one of the founding members of the Afro-Semitic Experience. He said that the band enjoys working with children and has played similar events, but this is their first time at Fun Fest, and they are very honored to be part of this special event.

Chevan stressed that the Afro-Semitic Experience is committed to sharing its beliefs about unity, community, honor, respect, and peace in its music. This is very important to them as musicians, especially in their work with young people and organizations like Música Franklin that are working toward a better future.

“We love that the kids are going to perform with us. We are excited about that because it’s something we love to do, and it’s part of why we are called an experience and not a band,” he explained. “When we come to a place, people have an experience, and it’s not just music. It’s a lot of things combined, including this idea of creating a sustaining community of diverse voices, and that will happen when we are there for Fun Fest.”

He added that at the workshop they held for the students, they taught them two songs: one of their own compositions, “Unity in the Community,” and the other, an old Jewish wordless melody that is easy to sing and creates joy and harmony. They will perform these songs at Fun Fest.

In addition to these headlining acts, the Valley-based Expandable Brass Band, a New Orleans-style brass band that turns every event into a party, will also be part of the lineup.

And we can’t forget the students! The Música Franklin students, who range from grades 1 to 8, will perform accompanied by faculty members. The students play at a monthly community concert and perform at various other public events, but none as significant as Fun Fest. Performing on the nice stage at Unity Park in an event of this scale gives these budding young musicians a chance to shine.

High school students from the Turners Falls Music Department will also be on hand to perform this year.

“I am excited to have the Turners Falls music department playing as that is a partnership that we haven’t explored much before,” said Klingbeil. “There are two existing music programs in Turners Falls, so it doesn’t make sense not to have them coexist.”

The schedule is as follows:

12:30 to 1:15 p.m. — The Afro-Semitic Experience

1 to 4 p.m. — Balloon Ben

1:15 to 2 p.m. — Expandable Brass Band

2 to 2:45 p.m. — Música Franklin students

2:45 to 3:15 p.m. — Turners Falls Music Department

3:15 to 4 p.m. — RapOet with Special Guests the Bap Pack

Both Jenkins and Klingbeil feel that hosting an event like Fun Fest is important for both their students and the community.

“A lot of times, music is not accessible, and it’s important to us to provide an opportunity for community members to experience a high level of musical performance like this,” said Klingbeil.

“I think it’s also important for the kids to perform in the community,” she added.

Jenkins agrees that this event is vital for many reasons, but one element that he really stressed was that Fun Fest is free.

“There’s a lot of festivals out there, but not all of them are for all ages, and not all are free, and we wanted to make sure that we could provide that for the community,” he said. “It’s also a great outlet for our students to perform with these headlining artists. All of our programs are totally free, and we don’t have auditions, so any kids that come to Fun Fest can also be in our program, and they can be on stage next year!”

Fun Fest will be held at the Greenfield Middle School in the event of rain. For more information visit: MusicaFranklin.org/fun-fest

Fun Fest is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, New England Foundation for the Arts, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, River Culture, Franklin First Credit Union, Greenfield Savings Bank, and Greenfield Cooperative Bank.