High school musicians from all over the nation will experience university life this weekend.

The third annual Prairie Wind Festival will attract about 150 band students for a weekend of classes and rehearsals taught by University of Kansas music students and faculty.

In addition to music instruction the festival is also a recruitment tool that has, in the past, attracted about 10 students to the University, said band director John Lynch.

“We think it’s important to show the social aspects of KU as well as musical,” Lynch said.

Visiting students will spend time visiting downtown Lawrence.

The festival is set up as an honor band for all-state music students, said Langston Hemenway, Lexington, Ky., graduate student instructing woodwind sections.

“I really wish I had something like this when I was in high school,” he said.

He was a band conductor in Texas for three years before coming to the University.

The students arriving today will practice throughout the weekend until Sunday’s performance, he said.

“It’s almost how a professional ensemble works with only a few rehearsals before the performance,” Hemenway said.

There will be a free concert featuring the high school students at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Lied Center. The students will be split into groups, blue and red, and each group will perform.

Lynch and and guest conductor Scott Weiss, the band director of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, will conduct the groups.

Lynch said Weiss would lead graduate students in a conducting clinic.

“He is a really talented, engaging personality,” Lynch said. “He will help them reach their best level performance.”

The department of music and dance is hosting the festival.