Organizers of the annual EudoraFest are trying something new this year to spice up the annual fall community celebration.

EudoraFest will return for the 26th year on Saturday. The festival committee has booked The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band to be the event’s first-ever paid-admission concert. The band will close out the day’s activities with a 7 p.m. show at the Eudora High School Performing Arts Center.

It’s fair to call the group a Nashville band, although its members are from the town of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, just outside of the country music capital, EudoraFest President Barbara Tuttle said.

“They’ve performed on the Grand Ole Opry, been guests of ‘The Marty Stuart Show’ and been the opening act for a lot of top performers,” Tuttle said. “They are a jug band and a bluegrass band. I’ve heard they have a big following in the Midwest.”

Tickets are $20 in advance through Eventbrite.com and $25 at the door, Tuttle said. Doors to the Performing Arts Center will open at 6:15 p.m.

Although the concert is new, free live music has always been a part of EudoraFest, Tuttle said. Dani Tompkins of the Gary & Dani Show, of Sioux City, Iowa, will kick off this year’s festival with the singing of the national anthem at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Eighth and Main streets before launching into the morning’s musical entertainment. Rich Johnson After Midnight will take the stage at 1 p.m.

Also new this year will be the running of the Great Kaw Adventure Race 5K and 10K on the day of the festival. The event, in which participants kayak on the Kansas River from Eudora to De Soto between legs of running and biking, was previously run earlier in September. The participants will start the event from the intersection of Ninth and Main streets at 9:35 a.m. To learn more about the race, visit runsignup.com/Race/KS/Eudora/TheGreatKawAdventureRace.

“They moved it back this year, hoping that having it with the EudoraFest would bring more people,” Tuttle said of the adventure race. “We’re hoping some friends and family members who come to watch the participants will come downtown to visit our crafts and food booths.”

Booths will open on Eudora’s Main Street at 9 a.m. Other events include a car show on Main Street, a cornhole tournament that starts at 10 a.m. in CPA Park and a garden tractor pull at noon at the intersection of 10th and Fir streets.