On Saturday, September 19, Bluegrass for Babies returns to Sawyer Point for its 7th annual concert benefiting Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The family-friendly concert, which runs from 3-9pm, features music from top bluegrass bands, plenty of family-friendly activities, a variety of vendors, local and organic concessions, and much more.

This year’s concert lineup features performances from returning local bands, Hickory Robot at 3pm and Comet Bluegrass All-Stars at 7pm. Special guest Jennifer Ellis will perform her popular children’s songs at 4:15pm. Headlining the event with a performance at 5pm is Pennsylvania band Cabinet. Cabinet was recently named one of the “Top 10 Country Artists You Need to Know in 2015” by Rolling Stone.

New for this year’s concert are expanded food options including booths from Eli’s BBQ, Mazunte, Dewey’s Pizza and Green BEAN Delivery. Local craft beer offerings have also expanded with beers from Mad Tree and Mt. Carmel breweries on tap.

The concert, an official Giving Hope Fundraising Event for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, was started by Anne and Matt Schneider in 2009 as a way to give back to Children’s, which had provided life-saving surgery to their newborn son. Since the first concert in their backyard in 2009, Bluegrass for Babies has raised nearly $130,000 for Children’s, and has evolved into the Healthy Roots Foundation, a year-round organization providing tools, programming, and resources as well as hosting a variety of special events with the mission of helping parents create an optimal environment to raise healthy children.

“Our lives were forever changed because of the care we received from the physicians at Cincinnati Children’s,” said co-founder Anne Schneider. “We created Bluegrass for Babies to not only raise funds for the hospital, but with the goal to help educate parents on raising healthy children.”

Money raised at the concert will be donated to the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and an innovative pilot study being conducted at the Center for the Prevention of Preterm Birth. Dr. Louis Muglia and his team are working to better understand environmental exposures such as air and ground pollution and their effects on pregnancy outcomes. Rather than using geographic and EPA data, the researchers will provide pregnant women with personal monitors that will collect specific, individual data. For the first time ever, researchers will have detailed information about the environmental impact on increased risk for preterm birth and still birth.

Tickets for the Bluegrass for Babies benefit concert are $15 for adults in advance and $20 day of, with children admitted for free. Group tickets, new this year, are $10 in August and $12 in September. Presale period ends Friday, September 18, 2015. Tickets can be purchased at www.bluegrassforbabies.com.

Sponsorship packages for families and organizations are available, offering VIP perks at the benefit concert, such as guaranteed parking. Details can be found at www.bluegrassforbabies.com.