Organizers for the Onset Blues Festival hope the event will help keep the fun coming back to Onset.

Profits from the festival, which takes place on Saturday, August 2, will go to the Onset Bay Association, which helps to put on several of the family-friendly events that take place over the course of the year, such as Illumination Night, the Onset Fourth of July Fireworks, Christmas in the Park, the Easter Egg Hunt, and others.

The Blues Festival is an Onset Bay Association-organized event, and though it’s one of the only events with a cover charge, it helps support them.

“They have several activities that don’t produce revenue,” said Bill Lockwood, the Onset architect who chairs the Onset Blues Festival. “There are currently no paid staff (on the Onset Bay Association)—it’s a volunteer organization. It’s been a place that been instrumental in forming a lot of other events. They sort of keep the fun going around Onset. It’s good to have an organization that’s promoting the village.”

The 22nd installment of the festival will start with a performance from Lloyd Thayer, a Boston musician known for playing his lap steel guitar in the city’s streets and T stations.

Thayer's performance won’t take place at the Lillian Gregerman Band Shell like all the others, though—it will basically be played in the street, as Thayer regularly does. Starting at 10 a.m., he will play a free show in the nearby Dudley Brown Square (across from Onset Village Market) in an attempt to promote the festival proper, which starts at noon.

“We did it last year for the first time,” said Lockwood. “It was well received, so we’re doing it again. It’s just to kind of get the juices flowing and get people who might be passing by interested.”

The headliner for this year’s fest is Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, blues performers from Chicago who have been playing festivals and touring all over the country for the last 25 years.

“The two brothers, (Lil’ Ed Williams and his half brother James “Pookie” Young), have been playing together for a lot longer than that,” said Lockwood, noting that they’re the nephews of Chicago blues legend J.B. Hutto. “They’re signed to Alligator Records, which is one of the leading blues labels in the country.”

Other acts include the South Coast-based band Johnny Barnes and the Night Crawlers, the Fat City Band, which is based out of Halifax, MA, Martha’s Vineyard’s Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, and Rosemary’s Baby Blues from Boston. Bill Narkiewicz, host of WMVY’s “The Blues at 8” show, will be the emcee for the event.

Jeremy Berlin, the drummer for Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, said he's excited to come back to the Blues Festival for the third time.

“Onset is such a unique town. It's in an area that’s very touristic and much visited, but in a sense, it’s a place that time forgot. It’s got a very homey feel. It's close to a lot of things that people know about, but sometimes people don't know about Onset and just seem to stumble on it."

Berlin is also enthusiastic about the show itself.

“It's small and intimate, the crowd is right there, and it's not a huge space. And there's always a nice mix of local and more-renowned acts that fans come to see. Our fans come to see us there. It’s a real small and funky little fest. There’s something nice about being close to home and having that mix."

Lockwood said that the festival has something for everyone.

“If you are a blues fan, even just a little bit of a blues fan, we’ve got a great lineup of people to listen to,” he said.

Lockwood also noted that they’ve extended the hours of the event. In years past, they shut things down at 6 p.m., but this year, it will go until 8:30.

“You’re not going to walk away disappointed, and all the bands are doing longer sets than past years. Plus, the headliner will be on after the dinner hour, which I think will make it a little more exciting.”

Tickets for the Onset Blues Festival are $20, and are available at Lockwood Architects on Onset Ave or at www.onsetbluesfestival.com.