One night last fall Justin Tidwell was at home flipping through cable TV channels when he happened across a broadcast of "Woodstock."

"I was sitting there wondering 'Why isn't there a music festival here?'" says Tidwell, 32, founder/CEO of Huntsville booking agency Rocket City Sounds. "Not trying to make it a Woodstock by any means."

Another evening, Tidwell was at Yellowhammer Brewing and hanging out with YH general manager Ethan Couch in the 10,000-square-foot biergarten there. And when Tidwell returned home later that night it hit him. "Why don't we do a festival?" he says now. "And why don't we do it at Yellowhammer because we can keep it controlled and get our feet wet in this whole festival game?"

He emailed his idea to Couch in the fall. After following up in early 2015, Tidwell has Spring Fest, a new one-day Huntsville music festival focusing on local and regional acts, ready to debut April 18. Rocket City Sounds is presenting Spring Fest in tandem with Yellowhammer and local luthier/recording facility/listening room venue Tangled String Studios. The festival will be held at the YH biergarten and taproom, address 2406 Clinton Ave. W. Midway into planning Spring Fest, Tidwell says he became aware University of Alabama in Huntsville once held a music event called Springfest, spelled as one word.

Nashville group Banditos, who formed in Birmingham, will headline. The band sews together honky tonk, R&B and beard-rock sounds in an unforced way. In 2013, Paste Magazine named Banditos to its "12 Alabama Bands You Should Listen to Now" list, a ripe tally which also highlighted St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Banditos have also performed at Gulf Shores' large-scale Hangout Music Festival.

Other regional acts on the Spring Fest bill include Music City alt-rock trio Sound & Shape and Charleston, S.C.'s Megan Jean & The KFB, a dance-minded Americana duo. Five of the eight Spring Fest bands are from North Alabama, four of those from Huntsville. Kings of Leon-esque combo Seminole Strut and folk-pop group Beasley Brothers were both named to the AL.com/Huntsville Times "15 North Alabama Artists to Watch in 2015" list. Also on the bill: long-running classic-rockers 5'ive O'clock Charlie, jam-band Liquid Caravan, Florence indie band Belle Adair (of Single Lock Records).

"I wanted to get the Huntsville community excited about music and not take away from the Huntsville vibe of it," Tidwell says of Spring Fest's local-heavy lineup. "Then, the bands that are from out of town, they have drawn good crowds in Huntsville and the locals here are familiar with them."

Spring Fest tickets are now on-sale at etix.com. General admission tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. An advance $60 VIP admission also includes a Spring Fest poster, two drink tickets and "VIP area" access, while an advance $100 VIP Package boasts admission for two, two posters, four drink tickets and VIP area access.

The aforementioned bands will play 40-minute sets. Music should run from about 11:30 a.m. to 10:15 p.m., Tidwell says. Spring Fest is in the process of compiling an acoustic side-stage to host performances during breaks when main-stage acts are setting-up and breaking down. Performers already lined-up this acoustic stage include Bryan Minks (frontman for Lexington, Ky. band Those Crosstown Rivals, a Huntsville live music scene favorite) as well as local singer/multi-instrumentalist Alex Dieterich and Mayhall Brothers, a Rocket City duo Tidwell likens to early Black Keys.

Food trucks will also be a part of Spring Fest programming. Albertville's Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza, voted Pizza Food Truck Of The Year in a Mobile-Cuisine.com poll, is already confirmed.

Tidwell, whose background is in government contracting, established Rocket City Sounds in spring 2014. He now works with about 25 artists, from Huntsville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Kentucky, Indiana and the Carolinas. "All the bands I work with are always like, 'Why don't you put something on in Huntsville? Everybody likes coming there.'"