Those who attend Music in the Park on June 23 can get tickets to an even bigger musical event free of charge.

Kenny Hess, organizer of the Merritt Rockin’ River Music Festival, will be playing at the Rotary bandshell at 6:30 p.m. and has 2,000 tickets to the opening day of the country music festival to hand out to locals.

Hess said the reason they decided to give out the tickets is to let Merrittonians know this country music festival isn’t the former Merritt Mountain Music Festival. He said he wants people to come out and see his festival, which is known as a family friendly event.

“We’re looking forward to saying thanks to the city and allowing people that are local to come down and check it out for the night,” he said.

The former Merritt Mountain Music Festival gained a bit of a notorious reputation over the years before financial issues led to its demise in 2012.

Hess said opening night at the Rockin’ River Music Festival will feature many great musical acts including the Chris Buck Band, Brent Lee and Josh Gracin.

About 2,000 tickets have already been sold to opening night and the cap on attendance is set at 5,000 attendees.

Hess said the goal is to have 20,000 attendees throughout the course of the four-day festival,

Overall ticket sales to date are a little better than they were last year at this time, he said.

A little less than 25,000 tickets were sold last year for the inaugural Rockin’ River Music Festival, which lost money.

“We would have liked to [have] hit 35,000 over the weekend,” he told the Herald at the time.