Suwannee River Jam

LIVE OAK — Suwannee River Jam week is finally here.

The Suwannee River Jam, the South’s Country & Camping Festival, gets underway today at 6 p.m. in the Music Hall at The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.

The Jam runs through Saturday with 10 country music artists and 24 up-and-coming artists/duos/bands who won the SRJ Audition series during the last nine months.

In its 26th year, the SRJ has become an annual family reunion, vacation, friends’ reunions, a time to have outdoor food fests and BBQ contests around RVs, campers, tents and sleeping bags. And, it’s a time to bring those music-making instruments and enjoy those campfire concerts. And then there is the four-day country music extravaganza, of course.

Country mega stars Billy Currington, Randy Houser, Hunter Hayes, Montgomery Gentry, Jerrod Niemann, Roots and Boots Tour artists Sammy Kershaw, Collin Raye and Aaron Tippin, along with Neal McCoy, Sara Evans, Colt Ford, Cypress Spring and Devin Burris will perform on stage at the Jam.

They will be joined by SRJ Audition solo winners Stephen Quinn (Jacksonville), Callie Leigh Johns (Jacksonville), Brittanie Powell (Live Oak), Darrell Rae (Jacksonville), Cole Tomlinson (Blackshear, Ga.), Josh Edwards (High Springs), Jimmie Coleman (Jacksonville), Zakk Kolberg (Valdosta, Ga.), Alyssa Gregory (Jacksonville) and Ashley Holbrook (Jacksonville); duos Southern Sass with Kelby Shea and Cassidy May (Jacksonville); and duo Karley Scott Collins and Alex Sandlin (Lake City). They will be joined by 12 SRJ Audition great bands — Ben Carter Band (Starke), Bryan Wainwright Band (Live Oak), Exit 78 (Alachua), Sondra Hunt Band (Lake Butler), Jamey Michael King Band (Cross City), Middle Ground (Palatka), Jonathan Lee Band (Middleburg), Danny Dawson Band (Manor, Ga.), Andy Pursell Band (Bradenton), Colby Allen Band (Valdosta, Ga.), Trey Tucker Band (Jacksonville) and Treble Hook Band (Lake City).

Colt Ford will be in the Music Hall for his Average Joes LOVE HOPE FAITH Dirt Road Disco After Party at midnight Thursday celebrating the unveiling of his new album where the album can be purchased and autographs will be available. Ford will be joined by super logger Ax Man and DJ “THE KRAKEN” doing a special DJ set.

In addition, there will be a NASCAR Golf Cart Parade on Saturday with Best Decorated Cart winning two 2018 SRJ tickets and a Budweiser prize package, Hope Notes Silent Auction to benefit local school bands and music programs (100 percent of money raised goes to these groups) held multiple times each year at the SOSMP, Tribute to the Troops’ Soap for Soldiers tent where you may bring your small items for our soldiers’ care packages such as soap, shampoo, sun screens, wipes and more and you may sign a card we will send to our soldiers thanking them for their service. Also returning this year is the Ms. Seagram’s Daisy Duke Style Suwannee River Jam contest sponsored by Seagram’s. The Ultimate Cowboy Challenge will also return this year.

The Spirit of the Suwannee is located on 800 acres of tree shaded property along the banks of the fabled Suwannee River between Interstates 75 and 10 in North Florida. Golf cart rentals, a country store, crafts village, bike trails, horse stalls, walking/hiking trails, restaurant, pool for overnight guests, game room, bath houses, chapel on Reese Lake, disc golf course, two tree houses and one of the largest bat houses ever is located here where you may watch each evening as thousands upon thousands of bats fly out of the bat house to rid the area of mosquitoes.

Ticket information is available at www.suwanneeriverjam.com and www.musicliveshere.com.