If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the next big radio hit coming from inside the Arcade Theater in downtown Ferriday Saturday.

A group of aspiring songwriters will gather inside the walls of the theater for six hours of songwriting discussion led by Vidalia native and Trinity Episcopal Day School graduate Tommy Polk.

Polk, who spent nearly 30 years working in the music business in Nashville, has assembled a group of five other Nashville songwriters to come to Ferriday for the inaugural Ferriday Songfest.

The songfest is an all-day songwriting workshop that is offered free of charge thanks to a grant from the Louisiana Lieutenant Governor’s office and the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

The workshop is open to the first 250 people registered. Anyone interested in registering can do so at ferridaysongfest.com.

Day-of registration will be from 9 a.m. until 10 a.m. Saturday.

Polk said the idea of the songfest was born after some discussion with Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin.

“Last year Glen McGlothin saw me hanging around and asked me to come up with an event for Ferriday,” Polk said. “Then he told me to try to write a grant to get funding for it and we got a grant from the lieutenant governor’s office to put it on.”

Polk said Ferriday is a town that is steeped in musical tradition and is hoping that he can help make the town a musical destination.

His first step to that goal is this songwriter’s workshop.

Polk began writing songs as a young teenager and knew from the beginning it was his calling.

“I started writing songs at 14 and don’t really know how I got started,” Polk said “I played a song for a girl, and she just kissed and kissed me. I knew then I had found my calling.”

Polk said he has written well over 1,000 songs and now hopes to share the knowledge he has gained after so many years in the music business with a new generation of songwriters.

The workshop is divided into six 1-hour sessions with discussions ranging from finding inspiration to examining the business side of music.

Polk said his biggest success, and one thing he hopes to convey this weekend, is that it takes time to become successful in the music industry.

“There is a lot of turnover in Nashville, and I made it through,” Polk said. “It is over time that you make the connections and friendships that will help your craft rise.

“Once your craft begins to rise that is when things start to happen.”

Polk said although the schedule is divided hour-by-hour, that is only a suggested outline.

“It is going to be a round table discussion,” Polk said. “I hope the audience will lead the discussion.”

Traveling from Nashville to assist Polk with the workshop will be Nashville songwriters Victoria Banks, Odie Blackmon, Michael Heeney, Ralph Murphy and Tia Sillers.

Banks wrote Jessica Simpson’s singles “Remember That” and “Come on Over” which was the highest new country single debut in history.

Blackmon has written for Nashville greats like Lee Ann Womack and George Strait and is the winner of three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Awards.

Sillers wrote Womack’s single “I hope you dance” which was the winner of a Grammy for song of the year as well as many other song of the year awards.

Although the songwriters come from Nashville, the country music capital of the world, Polk said they all have experience writing for other genres as well.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have the chance to get their original song critiqued by the discussion panel. Participants wishing to have their songs critiqued should bring them to the workshop on a CD.

Polk hopes this event begins a tradition of music back to Ferriday and to the Miss-Lou as a whole.

And he plans to do his part.

“I’m mailing off the grant application for next year’s workshop next week,” he said.