Mission Ridge has a lot going for it, one of which is a nice price for those who wish to keep skiing and snowboarding after the sun goes down - $15 for night riding every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (and sometimes on holidays, too).

Another thing they like to do up on Mission Ridge is to listen to some fine, fine music in the evenings. We're not talking about the canned stuff - they want to tune into the live kind.

So in order to satisfy their musical jones, Mission Ridge puts on a mountain music festival, with different bands showing up and laying down licks on 10 successive Saturday nights beginning in late December.

First up on the schedule is Junkyard Jane, who will be playing their "swampbilly" blues - an amalgam of Americana, blues, country, folk, funk, rock and New Orleans music -  from 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 27.

You can check out the folk-rock stylings of Kevin Jones Feb. 7 and the "popgrass with blues sensibility" of Fat Happy Feb. 21. Other bands scheduled to appear are Snow Bunnies Jan. 3, Nichols & Jones Jan. 10, and Beau VanWinkle Jan. 31.

There is no ticket or cover charge to attend the Mission Ridge Mountain Music Festival.