Word Is Pond: Listen to the bands playing the sixth annual Jamaica Plain Music Fest

For the first time in a few years, there will be no September edition of the formerly bi-annual Boston Music Festival. Filling that void are a handful of smaller, independent music fests around Eastern Massachusetts throughout the month, and one of them is this Saturday's Jamaica Plain Music Festival.

The sixth-annual JP Music Fest is free, all-ages, goes down at Pinebank Field at Jamaica Pond, and features a lineup that is perhaps the DIY effort's finest ever, with more than 20 bands and artists performing throughout the afternoon. The busy, but not convoluted, slate is highlighted by appearances by Hallelujah The Hills, Thalia Zedek Band, Citrusphere, Box of Birds (pictured up top), American Echoes, Tredici Bacci, and others.

This year's edition continues the festival's organic growth, and it's been hard to miss one of the giant festival posters adorning 25 MBTA and bus stop locations around the city.

"I think after last year, our fifth, people have really started to see us as an institution," writes co-organizers Shamus Moynihan and Rick Berlin in a message exchange with Vanyaland. "The promotion this year has been huge. People know what the squirrel is. That, and how incredible this year's lineup is.

More than 100 bands and artists apply to play the JP Music Fest each year, and Moynihan and Berlin sift through all of them. "We do our best to have the final list reflect as diverse a group of bands/genres as possible: jazz, folk, pop, rock, punk, classical, Broadway, etc. It ain’t easy, but in the end the goal is to have there be music to suit all tastes. You may not prefer a certain band, but in 20 minutes they’ll be another. An all-day smile on all faces."

This year's sponsors include The Galway House, Tres Gatos, JP Licks, The Midway Cafe, and others, and Moynihan and Berlin admit they provide the juice to keep the fest chugging along -- even as they stand back and let the organizers run the show. "They do it because of their love for this neighborhood," they write. "It's really humbling that people put their faith in us to do this and we try our hardest to make it an incredible day.

Check out a sampling of this year's performers, and scan through the full program after the embed jump.