Now in its fourth year, the weekly gathering combines performances by bands playing bluegrass, back porch, roots, Americana and other styles of music with a farmers market offering fresh local produce and other goods. Locally created crafts and artwork are sold, and children's activities include face painting, arts and crafts, a parade and the popular zipboat, a kayak on a zipwire.

This Saturday, Orquesta GarDel will perform. David Garcia, a professor at UNC who specializes in Afro-Cuban music studies, and Nelson Delgado, a veteran Triangle musician, founded the 11-member salsa group in 2006.

The band plays classic and modern salsa music rooted in the sound of the New York-Puerto Rico connection of the 1970s, a style identified with the music of artists such as Ruben Blades, Willie Colon and Eddie Palmieri. This year Orquesta GarDel introduced a new element to its repertoire, a set of original tunes influenced by Cuban timba music.

Orquesta GarDel, like the band each week at Saxapahaw, will play on a haywagon stage facing the Meadow Amphitheater, a grassy hill rising above the banks of the Haw River. Audience members bring picnic blankets and relax on the lawn.

There's plenty of food available --not only from the farmers selling fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats, baked goods and locally produced wine at the market, but also from vendors such as the Barbecue Joint.

The series regularly draws 600 to 1,000 people every weekend from Orange, Chatham and Alamance counties. Festivities take place every Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. through the end of August, along with a special Oktobefest Celebration on Oct. 18.

Admission is free, although donations are appreciated. Organizers pass around a "Swan Bucket" each week for the band.

Saxapahaw has undergone a major renaissance in recent years with the renovation of the former cotton mill into a village of townhomes, lofts and apartments. Renovation of the Upper Mill, the former Dye House, is set to begin this year. Local leaders are working to expand river trails and recreation areas in an area already popular with canoers, kayakers, hikers and cyclists.

The Saturdays in Saxapahaw program was created to bring the growing community together.

"Saxapahaw is as unique as its name," said series organizer Heather LaGarde, "There is a wonderful old-timey feel to Saxapahaw and at the same time it has a modern, environmentally minded edge."

Saxapahaw is on Saxapahaw Road, about 10 miles west of Chapel Hill on N.C. 54.

For information, including a full music schedule and directions, see www.rivermillvillage.com