Arlo Guthrie, legendary folksinger and songwriter, at the Hylton Center Feb. 6

Step back into time on Friday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. when Arlo Guthrie, legendary folksinger and songwriter, takes his Manassas audience on a journey to Thanksgiving Day 1965 for “Alice’s Restaurant”: 50th Anniversary Tour at Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Prince William campus of George Mason University.

When a young Arlo Guthrie, son of renowned folk legend Woody Guthrie, was arrested for littering on Thanksgiving Day 1965 and subsequently learned that his crime made him morally unfit to fight in Vietnam, he couldn’t possibly know that it would launch his career, turning him into a counterculture hero.

When he premiered his 18.5-minute musical monologue “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” which recounted the events of that fateful day, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967, Guthrie helped usher in a new commitment to social consciousness and activism among the generation that came of age in the 1960s.

Guthrie went on to star in Arthur Penn’s 1969 film adaptation of the events that inspired the song.

It has become a tradition for classic rock stations across the country to play “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” in its entirety each Thanksgiving.

Guthrie has entertained countless fans across the globe with his incredible mastery of the piano, six and 12-string guitars, harmonica and more than a dozen other instruments, and his hilarious and witty storytelling abilities.

In 1983, he launched his own record label, Rising Son Records, which holds his complete catalogue, as well as works by his family and friends.

Committed to social change, Guthrie and his family purchased the Old Trinity Church in Great Barrington, Mass. in 1991, where the events that inspired “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” took place, and it is now home to The Guthrie Center, a not-for-profit interfaith church dedicated to providing a wide range of local and international services.

The Guthrie Foundation is a separate not-for-profit educational organization formed to address issues concerning the environment, health care, cultural preservation and educational exchange.

For more information about Arlo Guthrie, go to http://www.arlo.net.

Tickets for ARLO GUTHRIE’S “ALICE’S RESTAURANT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR” are $50, $43 and $30. Youth Discount: tickets are half price for youth through grade 12. Visit the box office (open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) or charge by phone at 888-945-2468 or visit HyltonCenter.org.

Hylton Performing Arts Center is located at 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, Va., 20110. Free parking is available in the lot next to the Hylton Center.

For early arrivals, a free pre-performance discussion begins at 7:15 p.m.  in the Hylton Center’s Buchanan Partners Art Gallery. Novant Health is the 2014-2015 Hylton Presents Season Sponsor.