Stacie Johnson and Aaron Chambers first visited Summer Lake Hot Springs on Valentine’s Day last year, and immediately fell in love with the place.

“Its epic, natural beauty, which is so nice,” Chambers said recently while sitting with Johnson in Bellatazza. “And the hot springs, which are so good for you, all the minerals and stuff — it’s a retreat, a healthy place.”

About two hours southeast of Bend, the spot had something else that caught Johnson and Chambers’ attention: a stage, a remnant of the Coyote Music Festival that took place annually from 2008 to 2014. The couple, who play together in local roots-rock band Broken Down Guitars (Johnson is the band’s frontwoman, while Chambers plays percussion and raps under the name MC Mystic), began thinking about hosting a show at the venue.

They went back in April 2016 for Chambers’ birthday, met owner Duane Graham and pitched the idea of a Broken Down Guitars concert on a Saturday that summer. Graham suggested a festival instead.

“He’s like, ‘Er, well, you’re gonna have to bring a bunch of your friends and like five other bands, and you’re gonna have to turn it into a weekend thing,’” Johnson said. “And so, it was automatically just thrown on us that we were gonna be doing a music festival if we wanted to be out there. So it was very funny.”

With help from Graham and other artists and shakers on the local music scene, Johnson and Chambers took four months to put together the first Broke Down Soakdown, which took place in August last year and featured eight performances on two stages over two days. The festival returns for three days this year, Friday through Sunday.

The festival is still local-centric, and will feature performances from Broken Down Guitars, Wayward Soul, Conner Bennett Band (all returning from last year), Elektrapod, Goodbye Dyna, Jive Coulis, Ubuntu, David Miller & Stones Throw, and a late-night DJ set Saturday by Signal Bath. Regional acts Fortune’s Folly, Zahira (both based in Eugene) and Butterfly Breakdown (Portland) will also perform.

In addition to music, the festival will also feature yoga sessions Friday and Saturday mornings, an acroyoga performance by Ben Schade and Taylor Anderson and a cannabis education talk from Blazing Trails Tours (Johnson and Tris Reisfar). Food can be purchased from the kitchen at the resort, and three meals will be served per day at the festival.

The festival drew about 100 people last year, mostly from Central Oregon. Johnson and Chambers said they should be on track to increase attendance from last year, thanks, in part, to more lead time and the out-of-town acts.

“People plan their summers and what festivals they’re going to in April, and people were still learning about Broke Down Soakdown in June and July last year,” Johnson said. “Well, now it’s been a whole year, people — I mean, I feel like a few times a week, people have asked me since last summer, ‘Is it happening again?’ So the interest has been amazing.”

Faced with the prospect of curating a festival in just four months last year, Johnson and Chambers turned to their friends on the local music and arts scenes not just for bands to perform, but for help with logistics.

Many stepped in to lend their talents, including Wayward Soul bassist Cameron Harris, who did all the sound and lighting. Harris then brought in photographer Gary Calicott and videographer Brent Barnett, who created a nine-minute documentary on the festival and live music videos for each of the acts with recording help from Harris.

“Of course, we immediately started calling on all of our friends because that’s just how this community is,” Johnson said.

Harris, who performed with Subliminal last year and runs Blue Light Special Sound, will once again do sound and lights for the outdoor and barn stages, though he’ll have some help from an assistant this year. The sound and lighting systems have been beefed up on both stages.

“I saw a pretty unique opportunity there to get involved with something that was pretty cool,” Harris said. “One of the things that I think is a real big motivating factor when I get involved with things is this concept that in today’s society, there’s people that are consuming content — people that are watching the videos, watching the movies, reading the articles, reading the websites — and then there’s people that are producing. … And I always like to try to find a balance between consuming and producing things, and these guys were just gonna produce something out of thin air.”

The festival is the first of what could end up being multiple events at Summer Lake Hot Springs throughout the year, according to owner Graham. He said he’s continuing to develop the 145-acre resort, which he has owned since 1997.

“It wouldn’t be a big venue,” he said. “A lot of people are just tired of these big events, and I think a lot of people connect more with one another in these smaller venues.”

Johnson said the festival is on a three-year plan.

“Duane says we assess after the third year and decide — make sure that everybody’s being taken care of, and that everyone’s happy,” Johnson said. “Basically, Central Oregon is just getting to be this amazing destination, so naturally Summer Lake Hot Springs is going through a little bit of a bubble too with that.”

What: Broke Down Soakdown

When: Friday through Sunday

Where: Summer Lake Hot Springs, 41777 Highway 31, Paisley

Cost: $60 plus fees in advance (includes camping, but RV spots and cabins sold out); no dogs allowed

Contact: brownpapertickets.com, bit.ly/BB2ndBrokeDownSoakdown, Aaron Chambers at 541-420-1853

Full schedule

Friday:

7:30 p.m. — David Miller & Stones Throw (outside)

8:45 p.m. — Goodbye Dyna (barn)

10 p.m. — Fortune’s Folly (outside)

11:30 p.m. — DJ Raider Mystic (barn)

Saturday:

9 a.m. – Ashtangi yoga with Santiago Casanueva (lawn)

10 a.m. — Vinyasa yoga with Ben Schade and Taylor Anderson (lawn)

Noon — Conner Bennett Band (barn)

1 p.m. — Acroyoga performance with Ben Schade and Taylor Anderson (lawn)

1:30 p.m. — Butterfly Breakdown (barn)

2:45 p.m. — Ubuntu (outside)

4 p.m. — Blazing Trails presentation (barn)

4:45 p.m. — Wayward Soul (outside)

6:15 p.m. — Jive Coulis (barn)

7:45 — Broken Down Guitars (outside)

9:15 p.m. — Zahira (barn)

10 p.m. — Elektrapod (outside)

11:30 p.m. — Signal Bath (barn)

Sunday:

9 a.m. – Ashtangi yoga with Santiago Casanueva (lawn)

10 a.m. — Vinyasa yoga with Ben Schade and Taylor Anderson (lawn)

11 a.m. — Open jam (barn)