The old bakery on Kern's Rising Way has three nights of music booked and is charging for exactly none of it. It is the rare weekend where the plan can just be "go to Kern's" and the building sorts out the rest.

★Friday: Stax first, then boots

Scruffy City Soul Machine opens the evening at six — a Knoxville soul and funk outfit built on the golden run of the sixties and seventies, which in practice means Aretha, Stevie, Otis, and a horn section that does not need a microphone to reach the back of the hall. At eight the floor changes hands: the Ho'Down Social, line and country dancing run by Cowtown Studio, goes until eleven. It's free, it's for every skill level, and there is no dress code — which is a polite way of saying nobody is checking your boots.

★Saturday and Sunday: the kids take the stage

Then the weekend hands the microphone over. School of Rock brings more than 150 students — kids of all ages — to play across two full days, starting 11:30 Saturday morning and running through seven o'clock Sunday evening. Admission is free. It is loud, it is unpolished in the specific way that makes live music worth leaving the house for, and somewhere in there a nine-year-old is going to land a guitar solo in front of a room full of strangers.

★The practical part

Kern's advantage for a weekend like this is the building itself: the food hall vendors, the coffee, and the bar are all already there, so you can arrive without a plan and stay as long as the set list holds. Park on campus and walk in.