The producers of the annual Stern Grove Festival today announced that Grammy Award-winning funk band Kool and the Gang will headline the festival’s 80th anniversary Big Picnic kick-off show.

The event will take place June 25 this year, with local soul artist Quinn DeVeaux opening.

The admission-free concert will take place at San Francisco’s Sigmund Stern Grove at 19^th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, starting at 2 p.m. Seating will be on a first-come-first-served basis on the concert meadow lawn.

Prior to the concert, a private ticketed event for festival sponsors will take place at Stern Grove at 11:30 a.m. Ticketholders will have VIP access to a lounge and reserved picnic table seating for the concert.

Stern Grove Park was originally purchased in 1931 by Rosalie M. Stern, and named for her husband and local civic leader, Sigmund Stern. She gifted the land to the city of San Francisco, and in 1938 the Stern Grove Festival was born. Stern’s descendants continue to work with the city of San Francisco to make the admission-free Stern Grove Festival and other outreach programs possible. Together they raise close to $3 million a year.

The Stern Grove festival typically runs from June to August with concerts occurring every Sunday afternoon. Past festivals have included a wide variety of artists ranging from George Clinton, to Boz Scaggs to the San Francisco Symphony.

An announcement of the full 2017 lineup is expected May 1.

Follow reporter Julie Parker at Twitter.com/jpwhatsername.