EAST BURKE, Vermont — Burke Mountain announces today the 1st Annual Burke Mountain Music Festival on Saturday, September 29, 2007 featuring national recording artists Sister Hazel, and, Brian Vander Ark, lead singer and songwriter for the band The Verve Pipe. The event coincides with Burke village’s 20th Anniversary Fall Foliage Festival, with proceeds benefiting “Kingdom Kids”, a not-for-profit association providing scholarships for children from financially disadvantaged homes in the Northeast Kingdom, so they can participate in outdoor sports like skiing and mountain biking. Burke Mountain will announce the addition of a third, major act to the playbill on August 20th, at which time ticket prices will be announced and go on sale.

Burke Mountain General Manager, Rich Hohman, is already looking forward to a great day of music on the mountain: “Our hope is that the Burke Mountain Music Festival will compliment the Burke Fall Foliage Festival and enhance an already successful event for the town. Ginn Resorts is proud to be a part of the community and is thrilled to sponsor this new music festival. We have lined up a terrific slate of bands for the inaugural event, and we think the entire community is really going to enjoy this!”

Co-sponsored by The Point Radio Network, the Burke Mountain Music Festival will be staged directly behind the Sherburne Base Lodge, with amphitheater-style grass seating on the mountain’s lower slopes. Ginn Resorts, the parent company of Burke Mountain since 2005, is sponsoring the festival and has limited the number of tickets that will be sold. For more information about the 1st Annual Burke Mountain Music Festival, please visit www.skiburke.com.

Sister Hazel, from Gainesville, Florida, blends elements of alternative rock, folk, and southern rock. The group is known for devoting much of their time to fans and charity events in the spirit of Mrs. “Sister Hazel”, the elderly coordinator of a homeless shelter in Gainesville, FL. The band’s 2006 album release, “Absolutely”, is its highest charting album on the Billboard charts and received 4 out of a possible 5 stars from the All Music Guide. It’s most current release, “BAM!”, is a “hybrid” album, containing B-sides from the “Absolutely” recording sessions and some from previous albums.

Brian Vander Ark is the lead singer and principal songwriter for The Verve Pipe, which sold more than 3 million albums worldwide and produced a string of hit singles, including the #1 song “The Freshmen”. A Michigan native, Vander Ark’s gift is one of tremendous storytelling clarity expressed through melodies and rhythms that are unique, riveting, intensely personal and entirely gripping.