A gathering of musicians jam together during the 2015 Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships in South Park.

With lots of music at many venues, this year’s Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships will be much like previous ones but with a cool twist.

“We always joke we pick the hottest day of the year to have it, because it’s on the fourth weekend of August,” said Gayle Sigurdson. “But this year, it looks like we’re going to catch a break and have cooler weather.”

Sigurdson, one of the volunteers who organize the annual festival, said what won’t change is the organizers’ commitment to sharing traditional acoustic music with Lawrence music fans during the three-day event.

The festival will kick off Friday with concerts at two downtown Lawrence venues, continue Saturday with workshops and a concert at the Americana Music Academy, 1419 Massachusetts St., and conclude with concerts and state champion contests from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday in South Park.

Sunday is the featured event of the weekend and viewed by many area bluegrass musicians as a warmup for the big Walnut Valley Festival scheduled each year for the third weekend in September in Winfield, Sigurdson said.

“We’ll have two stages with four concerts and nine different contests,” she said. “It’s very similar to Winfield in many ways. A lot of people attending are musicians, and you will see them jamming alone or in groups while others are playing on stage.”

The festival started as a county contest to help celebrate the bicentennial in 1976, Sigurdson said. The next year, it became the state championships and has remained so since, she said.

To learn more about the festival, visit fidpick.com.

The festival’s schedule of events:

Friday

Replay Lounge, 946 Massachusetts St., Luke Paul, 6 p.m., Old Sound, 7 p.m., and Good Time Charley, 8 p.m.

Lucia, 1016 Massachusetts St., Sky Smeed, 9 p.m., Rachel Black, 10 p.m., Kansas City Bear Fighters, 11 p.m.

Saturday, Americana Music Academy, 1419 Massachusetts St.

Ellie Grace vocal harmony workshop, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Weekly AMA Jam, 3 p.m.

Ellie Grace concert, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, South Park

North Stage, starting at noon: Miscellaneous instruments contest, harmony singing contest, Julian Davis and the HayBurners concert, youth fiddling contest, open fiddle contest, Betse and Clarke concert, awards presentation

South Stage, starting at noon: Signal Ridge concert, banjo contest, flatpicking guitar contest, mandolin contest, Poke Salad Orchestra concert, fingerpicking guitar contest, youth awards.

On grounds: Jamming, noon to 5 p.m., Silly Hats and KT Walsh, noon to 5 p.m., shape note singing, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.