The first Santa Barbara Country Music Festival, is set for 1-7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, 330 Via Real, Carpinteria, and will benefit Rotary Club of Santa Barbara.

This is the first Country Music Festival to be held in Santa Barbara, presented by Homegrown Events, which is co-owned by Brian Hynes and Troy Hale, owners of the Borderline Bar & Grill.

Hynes, also a Westlake Village Rotary member, along with Hale and their Homegrown Events team, grew Oakheart into the largest country music festival in Ventura County to give back to the Rotary in which they then distribute the funds raised to local charities.

To date, they have given back hundreds of thousands of dollars to their community and plan to do the same in Santa Barbara.

The Santa Barbara Music Festival featuring Hunter Hayes, Devin Dawson, Savannah Burrows and Honey County will include live music, a vendor village, dance floor, line dancing and live DJ, beer garden, food trucks, kids area, and free and paid onsite parking. The day will begin with a private polo match at 11 a.m.

Ticket prices are general admission, $35; general admission plus polo match, $65; VIP, $75; VIP plus polo match, $105. Kids age 12 and under attend for free. Buy tickets at www.SantaBarbaraCMF.com.

Hailed as a “force to be reckoned with” by the Huffington Post, Hayes, a multi-platinum selling recording artist, has accumulated some 40 award nominations and wins, including five Grammy nominations, a People’s Choice Favorite Male Country Artist award and a CMA New Artist of the Year award.

He recently released “Heartbreak,” his first official single in three years, which Paste described as “a love-song’s curveball at the traditional breakup narrative.”

The Louisiana-native’s two-time multi-platinum debut album Hunter Hayes has accumulated nearly a billion on-demand streams in the U.S. alone and produced multiple gold and platinum certified tracks including his five-time multi-platinum single “Wanted.”

The hit received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Solo Performance in 2013 and became his first No. 1 single on the country airplay charts, solidifying the multi-instrumentalist as the youngest solo male artist to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in some 40 years.

Hayes is currently out on the road for his headlining Closer To You tour.

Atlantic Records/Warner Music Nashville artist Dawson is not your typical country artist. His look is dark and bold; his sound sleek and raw. He writes razor-sharp stories that are full of detail and clever turns of phrase. His songs speak the language of a new generation.

Dawson is a study in contrast, poised as the next bolt of lightning to hit country’s family tree. His approach to music is not different on purpose, it’s different with purpose.

From Orangevale, CA, Dawson, 28, grew up just outside the gates of Folsom Prison. He heard the sirens at night, and sang along to Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Marvin Gaye and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Arriving in Nashville in 2012, he put his skills to use authoring songs for other artists.

When it came time to put together his own debut album, he teamed with equally daring producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Little Big Town). Having co-written every track, the result is a mix of organic roots and high-voltage country, full of romance and delivered with a distinctive saw-toothed vocal.

He takes the stage this year with Maren Morris’ Hero tour, and the Tim McGraw & Faith Hill Soul2Soul tour.

— Melissa Fitch for Santa Barbara Country Music Festival.