Swallow Hill Music Association, which bills itself as Denver’s home for folk, roots and acoustic music, hosts RootsFest Denver in Colorado’s “Mile High City” on Saturday, March 28. Acoustic guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke, multiple Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin and bluegrass band Hot Rize headline the festival at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Tickets are $55, $75 and $125.

RootsFest Denver, formerly known as the Denver Folk and Acoustic Music Festival, and now in its third year, gets underway at 6 p.m. with 30-minute showcases by Hudson Valley, New York’s rootsy jamband Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, songwriter Joe Pug, Swedish songwriter Tallest Man on Earth, and Colorado’s own Boulder Acoustic Society. Harry Taft, Swallow Hill founding father and Denver Folklore Center proprietor, will share emceeing duties with musicians Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore. A signed Taylor Leo Kottke 12-string guitar will be raffled off during the evening.

Swallow Hill Music Association is currently marking its 30th anniversary. In addition to producing more than 200 concerts and special performances annually at its own three venue facility and elsewhere, the 2,300-member nonprofit organization has a year-round music school that provides classes to more than 3,000 adults and children each year; conducts school outreach and assembly programs; hosts jam sessions, song circles and open stages, as well as a monthly gathering for ukulele players, and, in general, serves as a resource and community gathering place.

Like Swallow Hill, Hot Rize — the bluegrass band whose current lineup features Grammy Award-winners Tim O’Brien (lead vocals, mandolin and fiddle) and Bryan Sutton (guitar), as well as Pete Wernick (banjo) and eTown’s Nick Forster (bass) — marks a 30th anniversary this year, having released its debut album in 1979. Hot Rize’s original members were part of the Swallow Hill community, while the nonprofit organization’s three-room recording facility, Sawtelle Recording Studio, is named in honor of an original band member, Charles Sawtelle, who died in 1999. An interesting bit of trivia: Hot Rize drew its name from the secret ingredient found in Martha White flour and cornmeal products.

For more information on the Swallow Hill Music Association and RootsFest Denver, visit www.swallowhill.com.