This Saturday, Vineyard Jam at Solano County Community College will raise money for education through country music entertainment.

The first of its kind at Solano College, Vineyard Jam partners local organizations and wineries with a goal of raising money and bringing a music festival unlike any other to Solano County.

Solano County native and organizer Curt Johnston has an extensive background in event planning and music education. When he began planning Vineyard Jam last year, he decided to dive in head first, quitting his job and dedicating his professional career to throwing the festival and supporting his new Social Purpose Corporation, West Wind Music.

The festival sparked from a couple ideas. First, that it would be an opportunity to support Johnston’s passion for educating disadvantaged youth and and two, that Solano College and all community colleges would be the perfect place to hold a music festival.

“(Community colleges) are perfect for music festivals because when you think about it, what are they? They’re commuter schools,” says Johnston. As commuter schools, they have parking lots large enough to accommodate a medium-sized festival crowd, stadiums that can easily be transformed into stages and they’re a reasonable distance from major cities and smaller towns.

For the first Vineyard Jam, Johnston says they are not expecting to hit their capacity of seven thousand,

“It’s just getting rolling,” he says. Instead Johnston hopes for around 2,000 to 2,500 attendees. He views the first year as an opportunity to build a name for the festival and get the word out. “It has the potential to be just huge,” he says.

The featured musical artists are an important part of generating buzz and interest for any music festival. Although their music budget was about 175,000, not enough to attract major names in the country music scene, Johnston says he’s excited about the talent they were able to bring in.

“People are going to be blown away by how talented they are,” he says.

In total, eight country music up-and-coming artists will take the stage at Doc Hollister Stadium, starting with Queeva, a young singer from Chicago. Shortly following is Greylan James, an award-winning songwriter who’s worked with Chris Young and Blake Shelton, and Tiera Kennedy, host of Apple Music Country’s The Tiera Show and featured singer on Beyoncé’s song and Beatles’ cover, “Blackbird.”

Next is Restless Road, a trio of country singers, Noah Hicks, known for songs “I Can Tell You’re Small Town” and “Dirt on it,” and Shaylen, whose latest single “Daddy Issues” came out just a month ago.

The festival’s headliner is Jackson Dean, who at just 24 is signed to Big Machine Records and has produced hits such as “Don’t Come Lookin’.”

One young artist, Maddox Batson, who will perform at 4 p.m., is like a country Justin Bieber, says Johnston. At just 15 years old, Batson has over 430,000 monthly streams on Spotify.

“There’s a meet and greet and he’s charging $250 bucks, and we’re almost sold out,” Johnston says, laughing in slight disbelief.

In addition to the artists, there will be food and drink available for purchase and a wine tasting of local wineries for VIP ticket holders.

Visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets, or purchase them from Vineyard Jam upon arrival, and lay out on the football field for the day of music.

Although it’s the first Vineyard Jam, Johnston already has big plans for the future of the event at Solano College and beyond.

“I have a bigger vision than just Solano County,” he says. “Once we’ve developed the formula, we can take the same show and do it in multiple locations.”

All of his big plans however, are rooted in the desire to support youth education. So even though the event might not turn a profit in its first year, Johnston has made sure that $30,000 to $50,000 will still go toward after school programming for disadvantaged youth.

Learn more and purchase tickets at vineyardjam.com

WHAT: Vineyard Jam

WHEN: Saturday, 1 — 9:30 p.m.

WHERE: Doc Hollister Stadium, 4000 Suisun Valley Rd., Fairfield.