NATCHEZ — Each May, Miss-Lou residents do not have to travel hundreds of miles for quality entertainment.

For 29 years, the Natchez Festival of Music has been bringing Grammy award-winning musicians and some of the nation’s finest young singers to celebrate the best in music, theater and opera.

This year will be no exception when the festival kicks off with a concert from Texas swing and boogie-woogie trailblazers Asleep at the Wheel.

“This is a group people will want to hear,” Festival of Music board president Diana Glaze said. “Asleep at the Wheel is simply spectacular.”

The band will be performing at 7 p.m. on May 4 at the Natchez City Auditorium. Cost of admission is $30.

Tickets for the festival’s main events can be bought at natchezfestivalofmusic.com or at the door, Glaze said.

A winner of nine Grammy Awards, Asleep at the Wheel is an American country western swing group that has been performing for more than 40 years. In that time, the band has released more than 20 albums and charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country charts.

In September, Asleep at the Wheel will be featured in Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary about the history of Country Music.

“During the year people travel to New Orleans to hear concerts and go to Memphis to hear concerts,” Glaze said. “We are bringing fabulous Grammy-winning  musicians here where they can see them for $25 or $30 a ticket.”

Along with Asleep at the Wheel, Grammy Award-winning Mississippi guitar icon Vasti Jackson also is featured in this year’s Festival of Music lineup.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, Jackson will join other musicians playing the music of Janis Joplin, The Who, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and other artists who were part of the iconic festival in 1969.

Jackson will play the role of Jimi Hendrix.

Called “A Day of Peace and Music” the concert will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 10, at the Natchez City Auditorium. Cost of admission is $25.

Two other Festival of Music events not to miss, Glaze said, will be the production of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and the classic Italian opera “La Boheme.”

Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” is a classic comedy first presented on Broadway in 1962, and will be presented at 7 p.m. May 18 at the Natchez City Auditorium. Tickets are $35.

“La Boheme is probably one the most famous and favorite operas, because it is very sweet,” Glaze said.

The opera that details the tragic love story between the poet Rodolfo and a Paris seamstress will be at 7 p.m. on May 25 at the Natchez City Auditorium. Tickets to the production are $35.

Glaze said much of the success each year depends on the group of young singers that audition every year to come to work at the festival.

Artists travel from all over the country to New York City and to Natchez to try out for various roles, from main-stage singers and members of the chorus to set designers and lighting and sound technicians, Glaze said.

About 250 people auditioned in New York for the festival this year, Glaze said. Twenty-five singers and approximately 13 tech people were selected.

“The singers are from all over the country,” Glaze said.

The young artists and the award-winning musicians who come each year make the Natchez Festival of Music a can’t-miss opportunity for area music lovers, Glaze said.

“I don’t think people realize the quality of professional singers we bring — and this year is no exception,” Glaze said.