The 3rd annual Bear Creek Music and Art Festival returns to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak Nov. 13-15 for three days of music, art, camping and community as fans from all over the nation gather along the banks of the famous Suwannee River for the fall's final musical celebration. The peak autumn weekend is packed full of high-energy, upbeat and danceable music highlighted by the festival's trademark sounds of more than 50 performing bands with a dozen groups offering two entire shows. Among the featured bands performing twice include New Orleans' contemporary funk institution Galactic; acid jazz sax-master Karl Denson's Tiny Universe; the swamp funk of Crescent City natives Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk; the UK's hottest, funkiest export The New Mastersounds; the West African primal swing of Toubab Krewe; world music psychedelic dub/reggae collective Dub Conscious and the full frontal assault of funk jazz all-star collective Lettuce.

Additional festival highlights include Georgia's brightest progressive jam band Perpetual Groove; longtime James Brown collaborator Fred Wesley & The New JB's; upbeat trance/dance fusion of Lotus; virtuosic guitar wizard Steve Kimock Crazy Engine; neo-soul keyboardist Robert Walter's 20th Congress; Southern rock super group Hill Country Revue; the kinetic keyboard and drum frenzy of the Benevento Russo Duo; contemporary avant-rock trio The Slip; as well as full sets from Bonerama, Pnuma Trio, Papa Mali Band, Garage A Trois, Yonrico Scott Band and more than two dozen more. The complete artist lineup can be found online at www.bearcreekmusicfestival.com.

Thursday night's pre-festival kick-off party starts the vibe off right Nov. 12 featuring full sets from Toubab Krewe, Pnuma Live PA, Pimps of Joytime, The Heavy Pets, Brother Bean & Gravity A. Admission for Thursday night's show is $40 and includes music, primitive camping and is only available to weekend festival ticket buyers. In addition to live music, 12 talented painters will create live art during the musical performances, providing their own artistic interpretations of their experience while on stage. These original paintings will be displayed and sold in the Bear Creek Art Tent.

There is no charge for children 12 and under with a paid adult weekend ticket. Continuing its commitment to community in a variety of displays, Bear Creek once again presents its 'Green Program' - the festival's pursuit for environmental improvement with a pledge to use more biodegradable materials, exhibit water conservation policies, habitat protection efforts, increase recycling and more throughout the park's environmentally-friendly facility. Bear Creek also hosts a weekend-long food drive in support of the Food Bank of Suwannee Valley by asking all festival patrons to bring a donation of canned goods and non-perishable food items to one of the Festival's many receptacle barrels located at the main gate and throughout the venue. In addition, the festival is hosting the second annual Bear Creek Feed the Hungry Disc Golf Tournament happening on the Music Park's 18-hole disc golf course. Its mission is to raise funds for the Food Bank of Suwannee Valley; yet this fun, casual and charitable disc golf tournament during the festival raised hundreds of dollars as well as hundreds of pounds of food during the 2008 event.



Official Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival Web site: www.bearcreekmusicfestival.com