ELLSWORTH – If you like to sing, get out of that shower and get to the second annual Downeast A Cappella Festival on Saturday at The Grand Auditorium.

The clean sounds of a cappella, in which voices are the only instruments, is growing in popularity, particularly in high schools and colleges across the country, according to organizers.

“When it’s just vocals, there is a direct line of connection between the singers and the audience,” Don Gooding said in a recent interview. “It’s a human connection unlike anything else I’ve experienced. It’s a very uplifting experience.”

The Ellsworth festival will offer afternoon workshops for both practicing and aspiring singers and an evening performance featuring high school and professional a cappella groups.

All of the events will be held at The Grand. The four workshops, to run sequentially, begin at 1 p.m. The workshops are free to high school and college students; everyone else can take in all four for $10.

Don Gooding of Southwest Harbor, who owns the Mainely A Cappella store in town, and his wife, Kate, are sponsoring the festival.

The Goodings founded Mainely A Cappella, which offers what they say is the largest a cappella mail-order catalog in the world. The catalog features more than 3,000 items ranging from sheet music to CDs.

The couple created Varsity Vocals as an offshoot to focus on promoting a cappella among college and high school students.

Proceeds from the March 13 festival will finance student scholarships at next year’s festival, Gooding said. Students are able to attend this year’s seminars for free thanks to money raised at the first, smaller, Downeast festival last year.

David “Stack” Stackhouse, who is making “beatboxing” famous in a cappella circles, was the lead songwriter and arranger for the Boston all-vocal rock band Five O’Clock Shadow, which disbanded last December.

Beatboxing is a form of “vocal percussion,” which is among several reasons for a new wave of popularity for a cappella music, according to Gooding.

Vocal percussion features singers who use their voices to sound like instruments. Stackhouse is well known for his vocal bass and drums.

Stackhouse will present a 90-minute workshop on “vocal improvisation.” He also will perform during the evening concert.

Other workshops will include an introduction to a cappella, and how to make a CD. The final workshop will feature the Houlton and Auburn high school a cappella groups, who will perform and then be critiqued by Gooding and Stackhouse.

Only students will participate in the final workshop, but other people are welcome to listen to the follow-up criticism and advice, Gooding said.

The Mount Desert Island group Acappellago, which includes Gooding and 12 other local a cappella singers, also will perform during the evening concert.

The Downeast A Cappella Festival will include an evening concert at 7:30 p.m Sunday, March 13. Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. For more information about a cappella music and the festival, visit the Web site www.varsityvocals.com. Scholarship applications also can be found on the site. Liz Chapman can be reached at 664-0524 or bdnnews3@downeast.net.