SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Dancing, singing and laughing  were how many guests at Blakeley Bluegrass Festival spent Saturday.

Guests brought lawn chairs and picnic blankets and enjoyed some of the Gulf Coast’s favorite bluegrass bands under the historic oak trees at Blakeley State Park.

“(We’re) just out to enjoy the day,” Debra Metcalf, of Mobile, said between bands.

“We love Blakeley, it’s a good-kept secret,” her husband, Fox, said.

Kracker Dan opened the stage Saturday morning, followed by Lock, Stock & Barrel, Alabama Gentleman and Delta Reign. The bands played throughout the day until Delta Reign capped off the festival, which ended at 5 p.m.

Bluegrass is a folk-inspired music that often includes fast tempos, banjos and guitars.

“You don’t hear music like this at Bayfest,” Shirley  Calhoun, of Mobile, said, referring to Mobile’s partially simultaneous, three-day event that featured internationally known musicians. “This music is just real.”

Continuous bluegrass was played where onlookers watched under moss-filled oak trees.

The family-friendly festival even brought out canine friends.

Bands went from one to the next with minimal intermissions.

While Alabama Gentleman warmed up, 9-year-old Claire Lorraine Powers, of Mobile, entertained the crowd with a tune on her violin.

Powers said she “loves bluegrass” and “wants to play the violin around the world one day.”

“We do this every year because it is a nice family activity to enjoy,”  park director Jo Ann Flirt said. “We want to try to help preserve bluegrass music because it’s really fine Native American music.

“It’s really hard to find it out there anymore.”

Mobile-based Delta Reign seemed to be a crowd favorite with Pat Murphy on vocals and banjo; Benita Murphy on lead vocals, rhythm guitar and bass; Dennis Gould on upright bass, guitar and vocals; and Tom Morley on fiddle and vocals.

Delta Reign played songs such as “Oklahoma,” “Mississippi Rain Pourin’ In” and “Jeruslem Ridge.”

“Yee-HAW!” a fan screamed, while the band played.

“Y’all ready out there?” the band asked. “WE’RE READY!” the energetic crowd responded as the band started another song.

Kracker Dan, a string band, entertained the crowd with Civil War-era music, as well as bluegrass.

“We just came out to hear good music,” Stefanie Templeton said.

“And to let the kids run around,” her husband, Tom, said.

The entire Templeton family came out and enjoyed a fall day; even Gumbo, the family’s shih tzu, tagged along.

While they watched the show, visitors munched on hamburgers and hotdogs from the Blakeley Park food wagon.

Proceeds from the festival go to the park’s operations, according to blakeleypark.org, the park’s official Web site.

The bluegrass festival is held yearly the first Saturday in October, the Web site said.