Organizers expect thousands of music fans to descend on downtown Norman next Saturday for the first Norman Music Festival.

Our city's Main Street, between the railroad tracks and Porter Avenue, will be closed to traffic. Volunteers will put up festival stages, vendor booths and hospitality tents from early Saturday morning to early Sunday morning.

It will be baptism by fire for the new director of the sponsoring Norman Arts Council. Rick Fry hadn't heard of most of the invited bands but the thought of between 10,000 and 40,000 visitors coming to his city is music to his ears.

"We're going to need some volunteers," he said this week. He needs them to help in the hospitality tent for donors and musicians, in production areas and performing services for the visiting artists.

Helpers can sign up by sending an e-mail to volunteers@normanarts.org or by calling the downtown office at 360-1162.

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Although he's new to the executive director's position, Fry is no stranger to the Norman arts scene. The 58-year-old artist has lived here since 1980. He knows most of the players. His personal artwork has been seen in many homes, fairs and festivals.

"Norman is a good sized city and there's a tremendous amount of art in the city but it's all factions," he said. "My goal is to bring those factions together and make it the great arts community it can be."

He replaces Marta Burcham who is moving from Norman. Fry will report to a 17-member board headed by Jim Wilson. The NAC sponsors a monthly roundtable meeting where visual and performing arts organizations, private galleries and other groups meet to discuss common ground on Norman's arts scene.

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The music festival's organizers don't really know what to expect for the first-time event. They look south to Austin where the South by Southwest music festival started in 1987 with a few musicians playing. This year, it booked over 1,500 musical acts from around the globe on more than 80 stages in downtown Austin.

Thousands of fans travel to Austin for the festival. It's held around spring break week so college students can migrate there each year. If Norman's festival is successful, organizers could move it up a few weeks and the bands could move from Austin to Norman.

Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com