HUNTINGTON -- It may not fit easily on a T-shirt or a bumper sticker, but The Coon Sanders Nighthawks Fans Bash is quietly becoming one of Huntington's coolest and longest running music festivals.

Held in the cozy ballroom of The Ramada Inn Limited, on WV 10, the Bash, kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 14, with its free jam and doesn't quit blasting those Basin Street blues until the wee small hours of Sunday morning.

Now in its 42nd year, the Coon Sanders Nighthawks Fans Bash really gets swinging Friday and Saturday with two nights of dinner and entertainment that go from 6 p.m. to midnight.

The West End Jazz Band from Chicago, the Toll House Jam Band from Columbus, A Touch of Dixie, from Raleigh, N.C., and the hometown, Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers are just some of the featured performers.

There's also a Saturday morning and daytime blend of music and good times including The 1937 Flood's breakfast buffet show, live scoring of a silent film at 11 a.m. by ragtime pianist Andy Schumm of the West End Jazz Band and a Saturday afternoon tea dance.

The full weekend cost is $150 for all events and meals or $60 per night for meal and entertainment. Entertainment only is $35 nightly. Saturday breakfast with the 1937 Flood is $20 while the Saturday afternoon tea dance is $10.

Dale Jones, president of the West Virginia chapter of the Coon Sanders Nighthawks fans, said the Dixieland Jazz Fest has had its best pre-registration in a couple of decades.

"This will be one of the best crowds that we've had in about 20 years," Jones said. "We're really pleased with the way it's turning out. I think it's the fact that we've got relatively low prices and the groups that are coming are really promoting it with their fans, so we've got a lot of people coming for the first time this year."

Jones said for dinner both nights, they have already got more than 140 people booked in a room that will barely seat 160.

Those wanting to make dinner reservations need to do so as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday, May 13.

The festival honors the Kansas City- and Chicago-based Coon Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra and that post rag-time, Dixieland Jazz music made during that period of the Nighthawks, about 1919 to 1932.

The band, started by drummer Carlton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders, was one of the first bands to play live coast to coast on radio on WDAF Kansas City.

Jones, whose Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers just got a nice warmup for the Coon Sanders gig with a recent packed dinner show at the Renaissance Arts Center, said Dixieland Jazz is timeless music whose tireless tempos win over fans of any generation that hears it live.

"I think it's the tempos," Jones said. "It's just toe-tapping music. It's not negative, and it's fun to listen to and fun to play. People who get a taste for it can hardly get enough of it."

Jones said it's been great to see so many Dixieland tunes and videos popping up online on YouTube and MySpace, spreading that New Orleans' built jazz to new generations.

"Ragtime was very structured and people played what was written in front of them," Jones said. "There was still not much freedom to do what you wanted to do. Dixieland came from that, and it's at the roots of all jazz, any jazz you hear today, all came from Dixieland. You ensemble into a song, and then when each person plays, you can still hear the song."

He suggests a great appetizer is to come out Thursday when more than a dozen musicians will be boiling up some of that Dixieland gumbo.

"It's free and that has turned into a real fun event for all the musicians," Jones said. "Normally when we play we have six or seven pieces, but we may have 15 pieces or more on stage and that's just fun."

Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch

Vernon Varnum of the Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers performs during a concert Sunday, May 3, 2009, in the Renaissance ball room.

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