Area’s Top Crop of Bands to Play for Strawberry Festival : Fender Benders bring their dueling guitars on stage Saturday; Asleep at the Wheel headlines the amphitheater show Sunday.

Bring your sun block and lawn chairs to the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard.

On Saturday at noon, the Fender Benders and the group’s trademark dueling Fender guitars will perform on the festival stage, followed by Mark Insley at 2 p.m. The festival will be held at College Park near the intersection of Channel Islands Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.

And the Grammy Award-winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, will headline the show at Kato Amphitheater at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Asleep’s founder, Ray Benson, is helping keep alive the legacy of Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, who died 20 years ago. Since 1971, Benson and his band have preserved and embellished the Western swing fusion sound--blues, big band, jazz, Dixieland, traditional country fiddle--that Wills and his band made popular in the 1930s.

And along the way, Benson (the only remaining original member of the group) and the band have earned 16 Grammy nominations and Asleep has been voted the Academy of Country Music’s Best Touring Band.

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After producing zillions of proficient line dancers and introducing many country bands to this area, the Crazy Bull in Camarillo closed its doors Sunday night after a blowout farewell featuring Acadiana, Oxnard’s Cajun-zydeco-country band. But stay tuned for news of a possible purchase and revival in coming months.

Several musicians and dancers have commented on the effect that stronger drunk-driving laws have had on the club scene. So many country folks have said they’d like the clubs to begin dance lessons earlier and start the live music immediately afterward. Patrons and musicians don’t want to hang around until 9 p.m. to begin four or five hours of entertainment.

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After a long run, the Acousticats, a popular progressive bluegrass recording group, is getting an amicable divorce in September so members can pursue other projects, according to co-founder and hot fiddler Phil Salazar, who now plays with Acadiana and three other bands.

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You’ll find all the bluegrass music you’ll ever want at the 35th Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest, Dance & Folk Arts Festival from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area near Agoura. You can also visit the set where the television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” is filmed. And don’t overlook the Cowboy Poets. Admission is $7 for adults, $2 for seniors and youths 12 to 17. For details, call (818) 382-4819.