THE Marley family's annual 9 Mile Music Festival is scheduled for March 3 at the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami, Florida.

It will be the 19th staging of the event which was conceived by Cedella Booker, mother of reggae legend Bob Marley.

 A release from promoters said three of the Marley brothers — Stephen, Damian and Julian — will perform alongside Burning Spear, Capleton, Cocoa Tea, Tarrus Riley, and Bermudan reggae star Collie Buddz.

Booker, who died in 2008, was a long-time resident of south Florida. She migrated there from Delaware at the insistence of Bob Marley in the late 1970s and became a community activist.

Several of her grandchildren, including Stephen Marley and Damian Marley, live in the region. She first staged the Nine Mile Music Festival in 1994, with its focus on collecting food to help the indigent in south Florida.

Since its inception, organisers say the 9 Mile Music Festival has collected over two million canned goods which are ultimately donated to shelters, mainly in south Florida and Jamaica.