Sisters Folk Festival is gearing up for a hot summer season (though hopefully not a smoky one). After canceling the event for the first time last year due to smoky conditions, the festival will bring back many of the artists who were slated to perform in 2017 for the three-day festival, which takes place Sept. 7 through 9 at 11 venues in downtown Sisters. The final list of performers, featuring headliners Justin Townes Earle, Dar Williams, Robbie Fulks and Amy Helm, is now up at sistersfolkfestival.org.

But music fans can start celebrating early with the organization’s free summer concert series, which kicks off Thursday in Fir Street Park with blind fiddle player Michael Cleveland and his band, Flamekeeper. The 10-time International Bluegrass Music Association Fiddle Player of the Year and 2018 Grammy Award nominee was 9 when he first sat in with Bill Monroe, and has since made fans (and collaborators) of Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Marty Stewart, Tim O’Brien and more. The series continues with progressive Cajun band The Lost Bayou Ramblers and Max Gomez on Aug. 2, and Irish folk group Altan on Aug. 16.

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper: 6:30 p.m. Thursday; free; Fir Street Park, Fir Street and Main Avenue, Sisters; sistersfolkfestival.org or 541-549-4979.