More than 20 music acts drive West End Celebration in Sand City this weekend.

Moonalice have played both West End and Jerry Garcia Night at Giants Stadium each of the last three years. (They play the West End Main Stage 3:30pm Sunday.) The San Francisco jam band, featuring three members of the extended Grateful Dead family, performed a set of Dead tunes on top of the Giants dugout last Tuesday to celebrate Garcia.

But frontman Roger McNamee’s mind was and is on Robin Williams, who the Giants commemorated that same night, a day after the beloved entertainer was found dead in his Marin County home.

“I hope there’s a Robin Williams Night,” McNamee says. “His passing has really affected us. It’s not like we knew him, but he’s such an important character in our lives.”

Williams’ death stirs up a lot of emotion in McNamee for personal reasons.

“I have a clear sense of some of what Williams felt,” he says. “It’s really hard for someone who’s never experienced depression to appreciate the issue. Some people are saying, ‘I wish he got help,’ but the reason he lasted until 63 was because he worked so hard at getting help.”

McNamee hopes the loss instigates sensitivity in an age where cruelty has become fashionable, especially in politics.

“Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if one of the legacies was increasing civility in our culture?” he asks. “It’s probably too much to hope for, but hope is what I got.”

He’s also got a group of three dudes – Barry Sless (guitar, pedal steel, bass), Pete Sears (keys, bass, guitar, vocals) and John Molo (drums) – who feed off audiences and original music.

“There’s lots and lots of people playing the music of the Grateful Dead really well, but is there anyone out there taking that spirit and making it into something new?” McNamee says. “I’d like to think if Jerry was still alive he’d think that was the cool thing to do.”

That said, Moonalice is more than music. It’s a communal experience elevated by poster art created for each show by a different artist and light shows by night.

“The beauty of music is there aren’t any rules,” McNamee says. “People do what’s right for them – and if there is an audience that’s right for them, they find it.”

Moonalice’s brightly-riffed pot anthem, “It’s 4:20 Somewhere,” has found its audience to the tune of more than 5 million downloads.

“We’re never going to do the Dave Matthews or Phish [thing] and that’s fine because that’s not what we’re in it for,” McNamee says. “We’re always going to do our own thing. We’re in it for a highly integrated live scene, where light show, music and audience become a stew of wonderfulness.”

Other familiar names for the weekend-long West End party: blues guitar virtuoso Chris Cain (2:30pm Saturday, Main Stage), mandolin encyclopedia Dave Holodiloff (7:30 Friday, Carmel Stone Imports) and local favorites Dani Paige Band (3:30pm Saturday, Real-to-Reel Stage).

In addition to Sunday’s young talent showcase on the Real-to-Reel Stage – with U.K. alt-rockers Ark (12:30pm), indie teens Everest (2pm) and vintage metal throwback Moses Nose (3:30pm) – San Francisco singer-songwriter Lia Rose (1pm Sunday, Main Stage), is another newcomer to prioritize, if only for her voice, which sounds like a mash-up of Lena Horne and Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro.

About two weeks ago, Rose began an upward journey that she hopes will result in being able to resign from her day job as a signal operator at a web company. She uses a new Internet platform, in the vein of Kickstarter, called Patreon. Instead of asking for funding for a particular project, Rose asks for ongoing support from those who want to be constantly involved and connected with her work. Even if the support level is $1 per month, certain perks are awarded, like getting her new content early. And you can be involved as much as you want. Rose offers a level called “Co-Conspirator Circle” offering those who give $10 or more a vote on what her next piece of content will be – so far, she has three patrons on board who will vote on the next song she’ll cover.

“Co-Conspirators get to be in an inner circle where I’ll absolutely pay attention to anything they say,” Rose says.

Rose has just over $100 in the early stages. Her goal: $1,500 per piece of content, with plans of releasing two pieces of content every month.

“It’s a lofty goal,” she admits. “But if enough people believe in me so much that they want me to be continuously creating, I’ll be able to quit my day job. If not, that’s OK, I just won’t be able to do quite as much.”

The best place to start: Rose’s “Trainwreck Tuesday.” It opens a capella, with the flair of Son House’s “John the Revelator,” before blasting off into acoustic folk territory.

It’s a song about self-defeat, yet light-hearted, which makes it one of the few tunes about loves lost that won’t plague your day with a dark cloud.

As Rose says, “It’s that pattern, right after a bad breakup and about to start a new relationship, feeling like, ‘Oh boy, I’m going to give you fair warning,’” Rose explains. The fair warning for The West End: Those who miss it will regret it.

WEST END CELEBRATION music: 7pm Friday, 11am-5:30pm Saturday, noon-5:30pm Sunday. Aug. 22-24. Venues include 1725 Contra Costa, Sand City; Ortiz Avenue, Sand City. $20/Fri; free/Sat-Sun. www.westendcelebration.com.