Harlem features free festival

The business owners of Harlem are offering a free outdoor concert and festival Saturday.

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Featuring classic rock group the Dirt Road Band, the festival runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the grassy lot next to the IGA store and Woodmen of the World building on West Milledgeville Road, Georgia Highway 78, in Harlem.

"If they bring their blankets and lawn chairs, that's fine," said Jennifer Tutt, an event organizer. "They can just sit out for that. Like a day-in-the-sun kind of thing."

Also performing at the concert will be a band of students from Harlem High School. The school's Advanced Drama Class also will perform a Broadway selection, Tutt said.

Arts, crafts and food vendors will be selling their wares at the event, said Lee Ann Meyer, another event organizer. Meyer said she hopes to attract many of the families visiting Columbia County for the Bassmasters fishing tournament.

"A lot of the merchants in town on main street (Louisville Road) will have special sales on that day as well," Meyer said.

"We just want to promote Harlem and we hope to make this an annual event."

Free booths for arts, crafts and food vendors are still available.

For more information, call Tutt at (706) 556-3800 or (706) 836-2001, or call Meyer at (706) 556-8222.