RENO, Nev. – Folk music legend Joan Baez is among the performers slated to play at Reno’s 15th annual Artown festival, which is expanding to Virginia City for the first time for a three-day “Americana” celebration at the historic mining town.

Organizers unveiled the list Thursday of more than 400 events to be spread over each day of July including theater, dance, music, visual arts, multicultural events and children’s workshops.

Nearly two-thirds of the events are free at various venues around town, many at Wingfield Park on a downtown island in the Truckee River surrounded by a kayaking and whitewater rafting park.

About 300,000 people attended last year. Officials estimate Artown has had an economic impact on the city in the neighborhood of $100 million since it began in 1996 with about 100 events spread over three weeks.

“There’s an upbeat energy that permeates Reno each July and we’re thrilled that Artown can have that sort of impact,” the festival’s executive director, Beth Macmillan, said Thursday.

The prevalence of free events helped Artown earn “Access to Artistic Excellence” grants form the National Endowment for the Arts each of the last two years, she said.

“To say that we’ve been able to grow the festival to include so many events and genres and accommodate the number of attendees seen in recent years is phenomenal,” Macmillan said.

It “speaks to the strength of Artown to draw national-level performances to push the artist envelop for not only our organization but the local community,” she said.

The Nevada Museum of Art, Nevada Opera and Nevada Repertory Theater are among the local contributors.

Baez is to perform July 6 at the Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater at Bartley Ranch south of downtown, the same stage where the rock-and-roll boogie band Little Feat will play a concert to raise money for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada on July 9.

Artown will feature seven “festivals within the festival,” including for the first time the “Americana Festival” at Virginia City July 9-11.

The town, which sits at an elevation of 6,200 feet about 30 miles southeast of Reno, is the largest federally designated National Historic Landmark in the country. It features pioneer cemeteries dating to the mid-1850s, the refurbished Piper’s Opera House and mansions of the famous silver barons who ruled the Comstock.

Macmillan said its shops, museums, saloons and street corners will be filled with music and dance along with jam sessions in a variety of genres such as bluegrass, Celtic, swing and folk — most of it free.

Other festivals exploring art and culture through specialty foods, dance and more include the 44th annual Basque festival on July 24 and Gospel Fest July 25, both free.

Weekly events at Wingfield Park include Movies in the Park on Friday nights. This year’s lineup includes “Shrek” and “Some Like It Hot.”

The Wednesday night World Music Series will include Moshav, a Los Angeles-based band with roots in Israel that combines such diverse influences as American folk rock, Jewish culture and reggae on July 7.

The Afro-Cuban All-Stars will merge the musical styles of Cuba from bolero to chachacha on July 14, and Parno Grazst will bring his Hungarian gypsy music to the park July 21, complete with accordion, spoons, milk churn and “oral bass.”

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On the Net:

Reno Artown: http://www.RenoIsArtown.com

Virginia City: http://www.virginiacity-nv.org

Nevada Commission on Tourism: http://www.travelnevada.com

HONOLULU – Hawaiian Airlines has taken possession of the first of up to 27 new wide-body Airbus aircraft that the carrier plans to integrate into its fleet over the coming decade.

The formal acceptance ceremony on Wednesday at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, included a traditional Hawaiian blessing, music and hula, and the presentation of a special Hawaiian chant written for the occasion.

“Today’s ceremony marks an important moment in the history of Hawaiian Airlines as we pursue our plans for growth and expansion,” airline President and CEO Mark Dunkerley told more than 200 Hawaiian Airlines employees who traveled some 7,760 miles to France for the event.

“These new Airbus aircraft will allow us to operate more efficiently and over greater distances, while also setting a new standard for passenger comfort and convenience,” Dunkerley said.

The new 294-seat Airbus A330-200 is slated to arrive at Honolulu International Airport on Monday. It will start service on the Honolulu-Los Angeles route in early June.

Hawaiian Airlines, whose parent company is Hawaiian Holdings Inc., said it is leasing three A330s that are joining the fleet this year, and has signed a purchase agreement with Airbus to acquire seven A330s starting next year and six A350XWB-800 aircraft starting in 2017, as well as purchase rights for an additional five A330s and six A350s.

BAGHDAD – Lawyers working for Kuwait attempted to confiscate the first Iraqi Airways plane to land in London in 20 years over a dispute dating back to Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of the oil-rich Gulf state, the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation said Thursday.

Kuwait is demanding reparations of $1.2 billion from Iraqi Airways for the alleged theft of 10 airplanes and millions of dollars worth of spare parts during the invasion and seven-month occupation.

Iraq says it has repeatedly called for talks over the case and to solve it in a “friendly way,” but the Kuwaitis have not responded.

According to the statement, the lawyers attempted to confiscate the airplane that made the flight, but were not able to when it turned out to be chartered from a Swedish company and not owned by Iraqi Airways.

Christopher Gooding, a lawyer representing Kuwait Airways in the dispute, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press the carrier served a court order on Iraqi Airways related to past English court rulings requiring it to pay $1.2 billion to Kuwait.

He said the order served this week calls for the freezing of Iraqi Airways’ worldwide assets, and requires the carrier’s director general to provide a statement of those assets and remain within the court’s jurisdiction in order to make the affidavit.

Gooding said Iraqi Airways has done “absolutely nothing” in response to the court order.

“The latest statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Transport lacks one simple statement — that (it) intends to meet its obligations,” he said.

The Iraqi ministry said the director general of Iraqi Airways, Kifah Jabar Hassan, who was on the flight, had his passport confiscated and is forced to remain in Britain now pending legal developments.

“Basically Iraqi Airways have to turn up with an affidavit of their assets worldwide. Then we’ll wish him godspeed and he’ll be on his way,” Gooding said, referring to Hassan.

The case is still being played out in Britain and has been described as the longest running commercial case in the history of British courts.

Kuwait has repeatedly attempted to seize airplanes purchased by Iraq as compensation, most recently in 2008, when it secured a court order to take 10 planes ordered by Iraqi Airways from Canada’s Bombardier. The case is on appeal.

“The ministry is surprised by the escalating and provocative behavior taken by the Kuwaiti authorities, insisting on harassing and embarrassing Iraqis wherever they attempt to open a window to the outside world,” the Iraqi statement said.

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Associated Press Writer Adam Schreck contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.