FERRIDAY — The Delta Music Museum will host a grand fundraiser to assure its future in telling the stories of late, great entertainers.

The fundraiser will be 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Vidalia Convention Center and will feature entertainment by local band Easy Eddie and the Party Rockers.

The fundraiser, which was organized by the Friends of the Delta Music Museum, will lead efforts to keep both the museum and the Arcade Theater open.

“We refuse to let this museum shut down,” said Glen McGlothin, a member of Easy Eddie and the Party Rockers. “Ferriday does not have a lot going on, this is one diamond in the rough.”

The budget for the museum has been cut for the remainder of the 2015 fiscal year and all of the 2016 year. The operations of the museum will be reduced to one business day per week with only one employee at the museum.

“I love Ferriday, this is my home,” McGlothin said. “We are going to do whatever we can to keep it open.”

Friends of the Delta Music Museum board member Elizabeth McGlothin said they hope to raise a sufficient amount of funds to allow the museum to operate on its regular schedule, which is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“We really need people to come out to this fundraiser and support us,” Elizabeth said. “We are having a long term membership drive to help raise funds as well.”

The Friends of the Delta Music Museum Foundation is having a membership drive to help with the efforts in keeping the museum fully operational.

Suggested membership donations per person include bronze star, $25; silver star, $50; gold star, $100; gold star plus, $200; platinum star, $500; and platinum plus, $1,000.

Delta Music Museum Director Lisa Marks said former secretary of state Al Ater donated a sizable donation to the museum, which helped fund the museum to the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“That’s why we asked the community to get involved,” Marks said.

The museum and arcade have approximately 13,000 visitors a year from areas such as England, France, Canada and New Zealand.

“We are going to lose that tourism if we are open only once a week,” Marks said.

Hammer’s Drive Thru will proved a cash bar throughout the fundraiser event, with pictures provided by Jessie Paul Photography.

Tickets are $25 at the door and $15 in advance.

Advanced tickets can be purchased at the Delta Music Museum, Vidalia City Hall, Vidalia Convention Center, Tensas Bank in Vidalia and Concordia Bank, Delta Bank, Rami’s, Catahoula’s in Jonesville, Spokane Resort in Lake St. John, Lake St. John Grocery and Hammer’s Drive Thru.

Donations can be sent to P.O. Box 1733, Ferriday, LA, 71334.

Checks should be made out to The Friends of the Delta Music Museum Foundation, Elizabeth said.

The Delta Music Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve and exhibit the musical heritage along the Mississippi River Delta Region, which begins in Memphis and travels down to the Mississippi River Delta through New Orleans.

The museum is located on 218 Louisiana Ave. in Ferriday.