The annual Bend Summer Festival, a community celebration of music, food, art and entertainment for all ages, kicks off tonight. The free downtown festival continues through Sunday (see “If you go”).

“The festival has ramped up to be a premier music event,” said Cameron Clark, owner of C3 Events, the event organizer.

Two free shows tonight include Toad the Wet Sprocket at 9:30 p.m. at the Main Stage and Night Ranger at 8:30 p.m. at Troy Field (see map).

Toad the Wet Sprocket, the California folk/pop-rock quartet that scored a string of hits (“All I Want,” “Walk On the Ocean,” “Fall Down”) in the early 1990s, broke up in 1998, but demand from fans pushed the band back into touring in 2006 and they are working on new material. Night Ranger, a rock band that peaked in the mid-1980s with “Sister Christian,” also continues to tour after a hiatus. To widen the genre of sounds available over the weekend, Coco Montoya, Ottmar Liebert, Luce, and the Dirt Drifters will entertain on Saturday. But there’s more to the festival than music.

“Still, at its core, it’s a festival of the arts — food, wine, fine arts, demonstration art, performing arts, it’s all there,” Clark said.

This will be the 21-year-old Summer Festival’s largest undertaking ever, he said.

The festival has added a business marketplace at Wall Street and Greenwood Avenue featuring “green living,” wellness, and “made in Central Oregon” vendors. “It’s our way of supporting local businesses during the festival,” Clark said.

The Souk de Summerfest, an international crafters market, will be located on Oregon Avenue between Wall and Brooks streets.

The “Jazz, Wine and Gourmet Foods Street” will host 18 vintners and gourmet food vendors on Minnesota Avenue. Artists booths will line Wall Street.

“We have never attempted to manage some 200 art vendors, some 50 food and wine vendors, a gaggle of children’s entertainment, some 30 or more commercial and nonprofit vendors, while simultaneously presenting more than 44 music acts over the span of the three day weekend,” Clark said. “It is enormous!”

If you go

What: Bend Summer Festival

When: Limited events from 5 to 11 tonight; full festival 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: Downtown Bend

Cost: Admission is free

Contact: 541-389-0995, inquiry@c3events.com or www.c3events.com