Grassroots art fair and music festival transforms into its second year, taking on the cause of preserving Bainbridge Island farm land.

Last year as the hubbub of the inaugural Bainbridge Island Art Expo wound down to a close, the sole organizer Liz Gadbois had questions of whether or not to do it again.

She had organized nearly the entire festival — a couple hundred pieces of art and two days full of musicians — and hosted the festivities at her house, coining its name Bottoms Up Farm off of Manzanita Road. She said it took the better part of a year scheduling and making phone calls and putting it all together.

She’s since gotten a job organizing for the Bainbridge Island Chamber and wondered whether all the time away from her family, life and job was worth it. And then the festival took on a cause — raising money to help preserve the island’s remaining historic farmland.

“When we got a cause, it made more sense to keep going,” Gadbois said. “That’s really what carried me through. It’s a big hunk of my life to do this, but I really believe in the cause of farmland on Bainbridge Island.”

And it just so happened that the farmland on which the festival will be hosted — Bottoms Up Farm and the surrounding properties — was approaching its centennial, marking 100 years of having been legally owned and farmed.

To this day, the HOW MANY-acre property is still divided between just four owners.

“It’s amazing that there are only four property owners,” Gadbois said. “When it could be more like 48.”

In organizing last year’s festival, Gadbois, one of those four property owners, dug more into the history of the land in her search to give her farm a name. She found a dramatic story that culminated with a drunken farmer who had boozed himself into a corner and was forced to sell off the land and it wound up in the hands of Akio Suyematsu, one of the “faces of island farming.” It’s remained farmland ever since.

With that heritage in mind, Gadbois said the former Art Expo gathered up its grounds as a cause and inspired by Farm Aid and Woodstock, changed its name to Farmstock.

“When we renamed it, I think we broadened the audience a little bit, quite a bit actually,” Gadbois said.

Though she won’t know actual attendance numbers until the weekend of the event (a source of great anxiety for any organizer), Gadbois said outside sponsors have been reigning in this year, as are top-notch performers and visual artists.

On the art side, the festival will feature an invitational show of 15 local and regional Farmstock-selected artists, on loan from their galleries — including big name locals Claudia McKinstry, Marj Hurlow and Sharon Strauss — and a comparable-sized juried art show of both local and regional artists.

The art expo, which will hang throughout the festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 1-3 is free. At 5 p.m., the art expo will give way to the paid admission Farmstock Concerts featuring the Dan Tyminksi Band, of the Allison Krauss, “O Brother Where Art Thou,” Nashville fame, and jazz man Hadley Caliman, who recently released his first album in 30 years, headlining Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Local bands include Army Corps of Architects and The Drews playing Friday, Peter Spencer and Cat Loves Crow opening for Dan Tyminski Saturday and Ranger and the Re-Arrangers and Pearl Django opening for Hadley Sunday. A weekend pass is $40, go to www.farmstockfestival.com for more ticket information.

“We would like to grow this event into a Bainbridge-style Bumbershoot,” Gadbois said, noting lofty goals of expanding the festival to three different properties next year if the attendance is there.

FARMSTOCK, a festival of art and music raising awareness for Bainbridge Island’s historic farmland, will be Aug. 1-3 at Bottoms Up Farm, 13398 Manzanita Road on Bainbridge Island. The free admission art and music expo kicks off at 10 a.m. each day, followed by paid admission concerts at 5 p.m. For tickets and more info: www.farmstockfestival.com or call Liz at (206) 819-3618.

FARMSTOCK CONCERTS

Friday

5 p.m. — The Drews

6:30 p.m. — Army Corps of Architects

Saturday

4:30 p.m. — Cat Loves Crow

6 p.m. — Peter Spencer

7:30 p.m. — the Dan Tyminski Band

Sunday

4:30 p.m. — Ranger and the Re-Arrangers

6 p.m. — Pearl Django

7:30 p.m. — Hadley Caliman Quartet