Hawaiian reggae star Ma'acho headlines the third annual Jefferson State World Music Festival Sunday, Aug. 20, at Riverside Park in Grants Pass. Also performing will be local organizers The State of Jefferson band, along with Frankie Hernandez, Organik Time Machine, Dominic Hendrix and Eugene-based The T Club. Also featured will be Californian Michael Annotti and Djibril Camara, a master dancer from Guinea, West Africa.

Food and merchandise booths will be available. It's a benefit for the Gold Beach-based Sea Earth Society, a nonprofit group working in Costa Rica.

"The benefit is not about money," says Jefferson State's Ryan Redding. "It's to raise awareness of them (Sea Earth). It's the chance people are going to see them in the park and become contributors."

The Society established the Donald Peter Hayes National Wildlife Refuge and Rainforest Preserve near Corcovado National Park in the Golfo Dulce region of Costa Rica, an area National Geographic called "the most biologically intense place on earth."

"We started it around the fact that there's nothing like it around here," Redding says of the music festival. "We wanted to get local bands going. Then we combined that with some international acts."

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Jefferson State recently returned from a Hawaii tour, where they met the reggae artist Ma'acho.

"He's got that old-school sound," Redding says.

Ma'acho (it means "eyes to see" in Swahili) has been called the godfather of Hawaiian reggae. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up in England and moved to New York City, where he honed a left-handed guitar style in the Sylvester Inc. Roots Band and later played with the Cool Runnings Band. He moved to Hawaii in 1975, where he became known for his inspirational, spiritual lyrics.

"It's diverse," Redding says of the State of Jefferson's music. "The foundation is American-based, with influences from all over the world all mashed together. We think it's a totally organic sound."

The band plays gigs where they can but tries to avoid the bar scene.

"I'm 22," Redding says. "I started playing in bars at 14. I was over bars by the time I turned 21."

Frankie Hernandez, who hails from Austin, Texas, has been called the Latino Stevie Wonder. He calls his horns-and-guitars-mixing band a "funk ninja collective." The band plays soul, Latin, funk and reggae.

Organik Time Machine moved to Southern Oregon from the East Coast last year. The T Club plays rock, dance and reggae.