The sprawling park, with its green grassy hills, where families picnic in the shade, or groups of friends share a smoke, where dogs sniff the air in anticipation, and where a rock band tunes up on stage.

This is Music and Art in Wright Park, MAWP, Tacoma's annual summer event - one that brings out droves of people ready to rock.

But before we can enjoy the outdoor fair, with local vendors, good eats and live art, we gotta pile into The New Frontier, we gotta bang heads and slosh beer, and put cash in the bucket. Saturday the Tacoma Dome music venue hosts a fundraiser to help raise money so we can rock come Saturday, Aug. 16 in Wright Park.

Not only will Ex-Gods (former Mahnhammer), Cody Foster Army (C.F.A.) and Infinite Flux rock the house this Saturday, but there will also be a new element to MAWP's fundraising ... and archiving. For the first time, a MAWP compilation CD, Vol 1: Organic Arsenic, a collection of the festival's past performers - including Tacoma bands from the 1990s such as Queer the Pitch, Portrait of Poverty, My Name, Spuj, Swelter, Poppa Wheelie, to name a few - together in a pretty little package for your listening pleasure, will be for sale.

Read Nikki McCoy's full feature on the Music and Art in Wright Park fundraiser on our Walkie Talkie blog.

MAWP FUNDRAISER, w/ C.F.A., Infinite Flux, Ex-Gods, 9 p.m., Saturday, June 28, The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E 25th St, Tacoma, $5, 253.572.4020