Labor Day weekend is the last hurrah of the summer months and a time to take one more breather of fresh air and sunshine before the cooler temps and winter doldrums suppress our desire to be outdoors. In these economic times, affording a vacation has been difficult, at best, for many people. Stay-cationing and finding inexpensive entertainment closer to home has been on most people's mind.

If you live in the Northeast from PA to Maine, stay-catioining at the Rhythm and Roots festival over the Labor Day weekend is an amazing value. For the price of admission, you can camp for three days and enjoy some of the best live acoustic root music available. Your heart and soul might just even be touched by the fresh sound from a band unknown to you. What a value! Are you one of the 40 million people within a 3 hour drive from Charlestown, RI where this well organized festival is held? If so, pack your camping gear and get there.

This year's line up is exceptionally diverse yet offering a cohesive mix. Among the dance community in the north east, Rhythm and Roots is best known for its Cajun and Zydeco line up. With artists like Steve Reilly and Keith Frank headlining the late evening dance tent and Cedric Watson, Cory Ledet, Ed Poullard, Preston Frank, Lil' Anne and Hot Cayenne, and Magnolia filling out the schedule it will make for one of the dancingest weekends of your life. You won't be able to restrain the urge to dance.

Don't know how to dance, you say? R&R offers some of the best dance instruction around with Greg Benusa from San Diego, and locals Jim Christiansen and Ed Slattery on hand throughout the weekend for lessons. Plus, you will find the most friendly dance community who will coax the shyness out of even the most timid of beginners. Everyone starts at the beginning. You will find the vibe irresistible.

But the fun doesn't just extend to the dancers. The main stage of Rhythm & Roots offers an incredibly exciting line up. Here on the main stage, you are going to get a dose of jazz, blues, rock, swing, bluegrass, folk and other traditional music styles. Chuck Wentworth promises you will be blown away by Great Big Sea, Duhks, Papa Mali, Jerry Douglas, Asleep at the Wheel, Nouveaux Honkies, Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s, Big Sandy & the Flyrite Boys, and Tab Benoit. There isn't a band in this line up that won't deliver high energy excitement. And, better yet, there is a dance tent adjacent to the main stage where you can let your dancing inhibitions loose.

Plus R&R is a family friendly venue with a children's stage and the Cajun Academy for Kids directed by Michelle Kaminsky and at no extra charge for your child's participation. Teachers include Michelle Kaminsky, Chris Ash, Rachel Panitch and Andy Stewart (fiddle); Tim Kness (accordion); Martin Grosswendt and Mary Jo Slattery (guitar). Where else can your child get such quality music instruction?

With a line up like this on for 2009, it's going to be hard to make choices. My recommendation is to not miss the back to back sets of The Traveling McCrorys and the Lee Brothers, if the energy between these two bands unite as has happened across the country this year at various festivals, these two sets promise to be a major explosion of sound on the main stage on Friday night.