Raleigh Wide Open music festival to return this fall

The Raleigh Wide Open Music Festival will return to downtown Raleigh in October, organizers announced Monday. 

The festival, which is produced by nonprofit PineCone, celebrates live music and the arts with three days of events.

This year's event is planned Oct. 1-3 and events are free to attend. 

The event will kick off on Thursday, Oct. 1, with a free kickoff celebration at N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. There will be multiple sets of music on an outdoor stage. 

Oct. 2 and 3 will include multiple stages, an art market, food trucks, beer gardens and more along Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. 

This is the second year for the festival. Last year's event attracted 155,000 people downtown and generated millions of dollars in economic impact for local businesses, organizers said.

The name, "Raleigh Wide Open," is a nod to the previous "Wide Open" festivals held in the mid-2000s as part of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass.  When IBMA  decided to move to a new location, Raleigh Wide Open was created to continue the local legacy of live music.