The area around the "Highway to Nowhere" will be the site of a new arts and music festival this June, organizers announced Tuesday. Roots Fest 2011, scheduled to start June 22, will have three days of workshops and community meetings followed by a free two-day outdoor festival that is expected to include performances by go-go music singer Chuck Brown and rap duo Rising Appalachia. The festival is organized by the Atlanta-based non-profit Alternate Roots, which improves neighborhoods through visual arts. In the early 1970s, hundreds of homes were demolished in West Baltimore to make way for a six-lane highway connecting Interstate 70 with I-95. The project, which has since been dubbed the "Highway to Nowhere," was never finished. In September, state and city officials announced a plan to demolish the highway's remains and build two new parking lots on site for MARC train commuters. The festival is meant to "draw attention to area we want to reclaim as a community space," Alternate Roots executive director Carlton Turner said. The parking lot construction project should be finished by the festival's June 22 opening, he added. The festival's first three days is expected to take place at churches, community centers in West Baltimore and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Turner said. The outdoor festival will also include activities for children, food, site-specific art, street vendors and live music. A full schedule of events will be announced in mid-February.

—Erik Maza