Ziggy Marley

The California Roots Music & Arts Festival announced a few of the top acts selected to perform May 23-25 at the Monterey County Fair & Events Center.

Performers include SOJA, Ziggy Marley, Iration, Alborosie, Zion I, Passafire, Los Rakas, Cisco Adler, The Expanders, Hirie, Katastro and Tatanka.

More acts will be announced Dec. 5.

The California Roots Music and Arts Festival has distinguished itself in the genre of reggae-rock with its rapid growth and huge crowds, making it the largest reggae-rock festival of its kind in just four short years.

This year the festival expands to the fairgrounds’ Main Arena, using the stage where legendary performers Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who and, more recently, Mumford & Sons performed.

Organizers expect attendance to continue on its trajectory to top 30,000 this year.

In 2010, the festival began with an audience of 1,700 reggae-rock fans and in 2011 had an attendance of 2,500. By the third event, the festival had grown to 12,500, followed by a booming 23,500 in attendance last year.

“We are stoked with this year’s lineup. It definitely called for the expansion of the fairgrounds and utilizing the main arena,” event promoter Jeff Monser said in a press release. “We will be dressing up the main arena with sod; overhead strings lighting and hip art, with live artists both on the stage and placed around the grounds. This year it’s about creating a relaxed, cool environment with great music, where festival goers can lay a blanket down and relax, or get up and dance.”

Ticket range in price from $135 to $450, with VIP perks that include side-stage seating for both headlining stages with bar host, lounge area backstage with live video screens of the event, event T-shirt, two drinks per day (6 in total) and private bar.

Learn more at www.CaliforniaRootsFestival.com.