“I've heard from them and from others there are people coming in from five or six states just to catch them," Norman Arts Council Executive Director Marta Burcham said. "It's really interesting, they've still got quite a following for not having played in eight or nine years."

An instrumental force in getting all the bands together for the festival is Andy Nunez, drummer for the Starlight Mints and owner and operator of Opolis.

Jones praised Nunez for using his connections in the music industry to draw in most of the bands performing at Saturday's festival.

While Nunez was unavailable for comment at press time, Opolis' Web site says the club will be open noon to 2 a.m. serving water, soda, beer and vegetarian food during and after Saturday's festival. In addition, the post-Norman Music Festival Blue Fish Companion XXI party will start after the Main West stage shuts down for the night (around 11:30 p.m.); acts will include Mama Sweet, Toil and Trouble and DJ Bronzai.

Adam Scott366-3533pop@normantranscript.com