Local artist Dave Barnes will be playing at the UC Auditorium at 7 tonight. The Campus Entertainment Board has brought him along with special guest Josh Johnson. There will be free food as well, provided by the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, which is also sponsoring the concert. Since the concert is free, Entertainment Board Chair Emily Stevens advised students to arrive at 6:30 p.m. before the concert starts to guarantee a seat in the auditorium. She said it is “first come, first serve.”

“We feel that this concert is going to bring out a huge crowd,” said Emily Bragg, a member of the Entertainment Board. She said that on Facebook about 330 people have said they will attend.

“CEB is trying to bring more up-and-coming people …” Bragg said. “We feel that Dave Barnes is probably going to be one of those people in the next year that you’re going to have to pay $40 to go see.”

Johnson is a local artist with the same potential.

“He just graduated from high school here in Knoxville,” Bragg said. “Josh Johnson has been alloted 30 minutes to play before Dave.”

This will be Johnson’s sixth performance in Knoxville since June. Fans can buy his 2005 project, “Twenty Minutes ‘Til Wednesday,” on his Web site http://www.joshjohnsonmusic.com/store.html.

Barnes has toured around the country for several years and has a nationally released acoustic album, “Three, Then Four.” His latest project, “Chasing Mississippi,” steers away from his single voice and lone guitar to the soulful sounds of a full band. “Chasing Mississippi” comes just two years after his release of “Brother, Bring the Sun” in 2004.

According to Barnes’ Web site, he will play at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., on Sept. 29 and then move on to play in Texas in early October.

Tonight’s concert location was moved from the planned site at the Humanities Amphitheatre because of rain. Haley Resseguie from the BCM said they had planned to grill out in the amphitheatre originally.

“We are just providing snacks,” she said. She said the Ministry was happy the Entertainment Board included them in the event.