The city of Richardson’s 23rd annual Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival, North Texas’ largest music festival, will be held from May 15 to 17 at the Galatyn Park Urban Center. The award-winning, multi-day eclectic arts and music festival will bring a distinctive lineup of Grammy-award-winning artists and draws local and national acts performing the best in classic rock, country, funk, pop, alt-rock, folk and Americana.

Performers include Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Kansas, Wynonna and The Big Noise, Blue October, 38 Special, Everclear, Fuel, Leon Russell, The Smithereens, Tonic, Minus The Bear,The Joe Ely Band, Gary P. Nunn, Max Stalling, Trout Fishing In America, The Zane Williams Band, Susan Werner, Zepparella—a tribute to Led Zeppelin and Le Freak.

A Battle of the Bands competition on May 16 will showcase three local high school bands. A qualifier round will take place on May 1 at The Door Dallas. Two bands will be selected outright to compete in the finals at Wildflower and an additional two or three bands will be selected to compete in an online fan’s choice contest for the third and final slot at the festival (see WildflowerFestival.com/battleofthebands.html).

The Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival began as a small community event to celebrate the acres of wild flowers planted throughout the city each spring in 1993 held in a local park in northeast Richardson. Twenty years later, the festival has become the premier music event in the area with the addition of national headline acts.

Growing crowds and subsequent logistical challenges lead the event to its first move to the Greenway Corporate Office Park. at U.S. 75 and Campbell Road, where the event was able to expand with multiple stages andmore than 30 acres of arts, music, and family activities. In 1998, the Wildflower Nights! Program was added, bringing an additional weekend of concert-style entertainment to the event. Wildflower Nights! features evening concerts with amphitheater seating, and the program quickly gained more popularity as bigger and better artists were added to the lineup each year. In 2014, more than 60,000 attendees ranging from ages 25 to 54 attended the event.

There are ticket discounts, specials and passes available.For more information, including complete pricing, a festival map, performance schedules, driving directions and parking information, call 972-744-4580 or visit WildFlowerFestival.com.