The annual Threefoot Festival, which kicked off last night downtown, will continue Saturday with a full slate of art and crafts, vendors, musical performances and good food to keep the whole family entertained.

Sponsored by the Meridian Council for the Arts, the Threefoot Festival will take place from 9 a.m until 5 p.m. on the city hall lawn along 23rd Avenue. Admission to the festival and the musical performances is free, and the event is open to the public.

The Threefoot Mile Race and a free concert by Clarksdale blues keyboardist, singer and songwriter LaLa Craig, a regular artist at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club, took place Friday night.

The festival continues today with more than 70 vendors, including artists, craftsmen, non-profit organizations, businesses and food vendors, slated to take part in a marketplace and food court. From handcrafted pottery to local artists to jewelry makers to candlemakers to crafts vendors, there should be something to interest people of all ages at the festival.

The annual Threefoot Youth Art Contest Exhibition will be on display from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Meridian Museum of Art, located at the corner of Sixth Street and 25th Avenue. The exhibition will feature works by students in kindergarten through 12th grades. Students will be competing in the categories of painting, drawing, mixed media, 3D sculpture and photography.

An awards presentation will be held at noon on the festival’s main stage to announce the winners of the art contest. First, second and third-place cash prizes and ribbons, as well as honorable mention ribbons, will be awarded.

Musical entertainment will be provided at the festival throughout the day.

The Lach Thornton Band, featuring native son and former Lamar School student Lach Thornton, will headline Saturday’s musical entertainment. Always a favorite on the local music scene, Thornton is now rocking the stages in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is working to make a name for himself in the music industry. He and his band will bring their Southern rock sound to the main stage at 3 p.m.

Kicking off the musical performances will be Shelby Anderson performing at 9:15 a.m. followed by Grayson Culpepper at 10:30 a.m., the West Lauderdale High School jazz band at 11 a.m., ballerinas from Carol Merrill Academy of Dance at 11:30 a.m., Britt Gully and the Water Moccasins at 12:30 p.m. and Cat 3 Boogie Band at 1:30 p.m.

A talented musician, Anderson is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, drummer, harmonica player, keyboard player, engineer, instructor and producer from Mississippi. Fourteen-year-old Culpepper is driven by a deep love for music that has been with him since childhood. He has been popping up at festivals and events around town for the last couple of years. Gully, a well-known musician in the Meridian area for the last few decades, is a singer and songwriter whose country sound features a blend of rockabilly, honky tonk and gospel.

For more information about the Threefoot Festival, visit the council’s website at meridianartscouncil.org.