Get Mark Ransom talking about the local music scene, and his enthusiasm is palpable.

His eyes lit up during a recent interview at Parrilla Grill as he discussed the 100 local and regional acts set to take the stage this weekend at the eighth Bend Roots Revival Festival. The local-centric music festival, which Ransom co-founded with his Mostest bandmate Patrick Pearsall in 2006, kicks off today and runs through Sunday at the Deschutes Brewery warehouse in the Old Mill District.

“In this time of year, it’s so fun to think about all these different bands that are holed up in their garage practicing their set,” Ransom said.

“And then I’m getting off the phone with Ashley Flynn this afternoon — she’s an amazing artist that’s been around for decades, literally, and she’s playing the festival for the first time this year. She’s from Portland. … And she’s so thrilled to have her four-piece band at the Roots Festival for the first time this year. She’s probably my age. Stuff like that.”

Ransom would have to be enthusiastic to keep such a large festival going for close to a decade. Over the last nine years, the festival has taken place at four different locations in the city and has only missed one year — in 2012. The Century Center pulled out at the last minute due to traffic and noise concerns.

At the first Roots Festival, 12 bands played at Parrilla Grill and the Victorian Cafe in a single day. The event has grown every year since then, moving first to the Century Center and then the Pakit Liquidators junkyard on the east side of the city. This is the second year the festival will be held in the Old Mill District.

“Really the goal has always been to have a blueprint and a place … that becomes the festival grounds,” Ransom said. “And we thought we had that a couple different times, and now we really think we have it. … We have the blessing of the Old Mill District.”

This year the festival will feature six stages, including a stage sponsored by another Central Oregon institution, the 4 Peaks Music Festival. At least 20 bands will perform tonight, an “all-time high” for the festival’s opening night, according to Ransom.

No matter where the event is located, the Roots Festival has always been about one thing: the Bend music community. For Ransom, the word “roots” encompasses more than just one genre of music — again, it goes back to community.

“Roots implies community and growth in the community and education in the community around the arts, to me,” he said.

The focus on the artists involved manifests even in the way the festival is run, with the musicians making sure each band gets onstage at the correct time.

The festival grounds are divided into three areas with two adjacent stages in each area. The BIGS Mainstage and Black Butte Porter Stage are located in the Deschutes Brewery’s lawn; the RedBird and 4 Peaks stages are in the parking lot between the brewery and the Art Station; and the Art Station Stage and Ramblerland are at the Art Station. Sets trade off between the two stages in each of the three areas of the festival. While one band is performing on one stage, the next band is setting up on the adjacent stage.

“That’s the tricky thing for a lot of people,” Ransom said. “But you do usually get at least a half an hour or 45 minutes to set up, which is a big thing.”

The festival also directly supports the local chapter of Rise Up International, which hosts music and arts workshops and classes in five local schools — Westside Village Magnet School, REALMS Charter School, Cascades Academy and the Tamarac Program at Riverbend Middle School and Chamberlain High School. Last year, vendor and alcohol sales from the festival raised $25,000 for Rise Up, according to Ransom.

The festival’s growth has mirrored that of the local music scene in the last decade, which itself was precipitated by Bend’s population growth. When Ohio native Ransom, now 45, first moved to Bend in 1992 from Colorado, the city’s population was just less than 17,000. But even then, Ransom noticed the city’s thriving arts and music community.

“I think because of just the energy of Bend and how, what a special place it is, I think it automatically sort of resonates at a frequency that a lot of artist-type(s) … will kind of gather around or come to,” Ransom said.

He got the idea for the Roots Festival after a conversation with his friend Brent Allen in 2005. At the time, the Les Schwab Amphitheater had been bringing big-name musical acts to Bend for a few years.

“… There were a lot of internationally famous acts that were coming through and playing at the amphitheater, and kind of getting off the tour bus and onto the stage and then back onto the tour bus,” Ransom said. “And that just didn’t feel right entirely because — oh, it felt great; it was great to have that kind of a thing going on in our town — but at the same time, it was like the local artist really was pushed aside.”

Local newgrass five-piece the Moon Mountain Ramblers has played the festival every year since its inception, including this year — the band takes the Black Butte Porter Stage at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.

“I remember it being quite a bit smaller (when it started), but there would be a ton of people who would come,” guitarist Matt “Mai” Hyman said. “I think just a lot of bands got excited being able to play to a big crowd at a great venue. It’s just cool. There didn’t used to be that many bands; to hear there’s 100 bands — whoa.”

The Moon Mountain Ramblers’ mix of bluegrass, folk, rock and pop has evolved almost in tandem with the Roots Festival. Since the band formed about 13 years ago, Hyman has seen Bend’s population balloon and its music scene take off. He said the Roots Festival is a big part of the growth in the number of bands and musicians in Bend.

“There’s so much community backing for music,” Hyman said. “You still see a lot of the same people there that have been there for a while playing music — there’s always a core group you recognize. But there’s also a lot more people, too, that have moved here. Everybody has pretty open arms when it comes to playing music here.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com