The sprawling park, with its green grassy hills, where families picnic in the shade, or groups of friends share a smoke, where dogs sniff the air in anticipation, and where a rock band tunes up on stage.

This is Music and Art in Wright Park, MAWP, Tacoma's annual summer event - one that brings out droves of people ready to rock.

But before we can enjoy the outdoor fair, with local vendors, good eats and live art, we gotta pile into The New Frontier, we gotta bang heads and slosh beer, and put cash in the bucket. Saturday the Tacoma Dome music venue hosts a fundraiser to help raise money so we can rock come Saturday, Aug. 16 in Wright Park.

Not only will Ex-Gods (former Mahnhammer), Cody Foster Army (C.F.A.) and Infinite Flux rock the house this Saturday, but there will also be a new element to MAWP's fundraising ... and archiving. For the first time, a MAWP compilation CD, Vol 1: Organic Arsenic, a collection of the festival's past performers - including Tacoma bands from the 1990s such as Queer the Pitch, Portrait of Poverty, My Name, Spuj, Swelter, Poppa Wheelie, to name a few - together in a pretty little package for your listening pleasure, will be for sale.

"The mix is great," says Cody Foster of C.F.A. and curator of MAWP. "If you grew up listening to comps jam packed full of bands, you will love this. From pop to punk to rockin' to heavy ... nostalgic tunes, I must say."

While additional funding for MAWP is a motivator to release the compilation series - yes, Volume 2 is in the works - Foster feels the conservation aspect is most important. Fifty copies will be put into Puget Sound libraries. Out of 29 songs, 15 are unreleased.

"Some of these recordings had never left analog format," Foster explains. "We had to restore some of the tracks. In one case, we got ahold of an entire lost, never-released album that the band members didn't even have."

"I really do believe that the compilation is a rare treat to all," said Micah Hembree of Ex-Gods, formerly of Swelter, who made it on the comp. "It not only has bands that you know and love on it, but it also has some hidden things that you may not remember hearing. Those bands that you may have forgotten about, that truly made the music in Tacoma what it is today."

So come get your hot little hands on the mix ($10), or grab a MAWP T-shirt ($20) and get your rock on with C.F.A., Infinite Flux and Ex-Gods.

"As far as MAWP is concerned, I feel very fortunate to be a part of a community that cares so much about art and its staying power," Hembree said."As far as Ex-Gods is concerned, we are ready to make love to you the only way we know how. By crushing you."

For more information on Music and Art in Wright Park, click here.

MAWP FUNDRAISER, w/ C.F.A., Infinite Flux, Ex-Gods, 9 p.m., Saturday, June 28, The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E 25th St, Tacoma, $5, 253.572.4020