The first man to play the first show at Freight & Salvage in 1968 will be the kickoff headliner event for the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest, a nine-day extravaganza of music.

Phil Marsh, described as a “folk-to-country-to-blues troubadour” will reunite with the Energy Crisis band for a performance Friday August 20 at 8 pm the newly-remodeled Freight & Salvage on Addison Street. At 12:30 on Saturday, the Freight will host the first annual west coast Jug Band Jubilee.

Over a course of nine days, more than 50 musicians and groups will play at the festival, representing styles as diverse as jazz, blues, folk, Afro-Brazilian, traditional, and bluegrass. Many of the performances are free.

There will be solo singers, trios, duets, and bands performing throughout the downtown area, in venues as diverse as the Berkeley Public Library, Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food, Bobby G’s Pizzeria, Half-Price Books, the Jazzschool, the Shattuck Down Low, Jupiter, Tapioca Express, Beckett’s of Berkeley, and the Berkeley Farmer’s Market.

Some of the performers include Maria Muldaur, Peter Case,  the Turtle Island Quartet, Amanda West, Andy Y Su Orchestra, Bluestate Band, Chris Caswell, Curtis Bumpy, Earth Bay Grass, the Eli Goldlink Trio, Erik Oba, Kally Price, KC jiang, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Exhausted Pipes, and many more.

Here is the complete schedule.

The Downtown Berkeley MusicFest is produced by the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, and is made possible by support from the the Downtown Berkeley Association, the City of Berkeley, AT&T California, and KPFA.

If you can’t wait until tomorrow, the Jazzschool is presenting drummer Isaac Schwartz and guitarist Arian Shafiee today at noon. They will perform at Bartlett’s Plaza at the Library Gardens (next to the Berkeley Public Library.)