Mississippi Valley Blues Festival Returns TODAY!
In a way, we’ve all been singing the blues the past 18 months. So area blues fans will be in heaven with the return of the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival this weekend.
Following the pandemic-plagued 2020, when the Blues Fest was cancelled along with so many events, the all-volunteer Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS) is roaring back to life with the new two-day musical extravaganza, Friday and Saturday at Davenport’s LeClaire Park.
Jontavious Willis will perform at 6:45 p.m. Friday for Blues Fest at LeClaire Park.
Bob Clevenstine, board president for the MVBS, is thrilled with the fest mainstage and tent stage lineups. The main performers will be:
Main Stage Friday –
- 5-6:15 p.m.: John Primer
- 6:45-7:45 p.m.: Jontavious Willis
- 8:15-9:30 p.m.: Toronzo Cannon
- 10-11:30 p.m.: Southern Avenue
Main Stage Saturday –
- 2-3:15 p.m.: Stephen Hull Expersience
- 3:45-5 p.m.: Selwyn Birchwood
- 5:30-6:45 p.m.: Melody Angel
- 7:15-8:30 p.m.: Danielle Nicole
- 9-10:30 p.m.: Eric Gales
“We’ve got an all-star lineup,” Clevenstine said recently. “In fact, what I really like about it is, the new folks. We’re bringing in Jontavious Willis who follows our opener on Friday, and Jontavious is a multi-instrumentalist, but sort of a dobro guy and guitarist out of Georgia. Then Saturday, the Stephen Hull Experience, he’s a 21-year-old from Racine (Wis.), and I think he’s going to really knock some people out, as will Melody Angel, who follows them.”
“There’s going to be a lot of cool new acts and then our closer, Eric Gales is just a phenomenal guitar player,” he said.
The Pedigo-Jones Tent Stage also features great local and regional talent, Clevenstine said, noting he’s especially looking forward to the new Q-C band, Piso’s Cure – comprised of vocalists Frankie Fontagne and Chrissy Boyer, keyboardist Jacob Palmer, guitarist Logan McDaniel and drummer John Sorensen.
Bob Clevenstine is board president of the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.
New to the fest this year is a handicapped-accessible riser on the north side near the front of the stage, to give those with special needs a better view, as well as more handicapped-accessible parking near the park.
Due to the fact that MVBS had no revenue last year because of the canceled fest, there are more event sponsors this year, including the Regional Development Authority, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, Cobham Mission Systems, Green State Credit Union, Family Credit Union, Nature’s Treatment of Illinois, The Echo, Ruhl & Ruhl Realtors, Doris and Rusty Unterzuber, Zimmerman Honda, MidAmerican Energy and IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union.
“We had to really pull out the stops to support the performer fees this year, because, of course, we didn’t have the festival last year,” Clevenstine said. “We had no way of raising money, like we usually do with the fest. So we had to really go to the mat on fundraising to get a decent budget together for our performers.”
Though MVBS had a quiet year last year (also without its Blues in the Schools education program), it was hardly idle.
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1984, completely revamped its website, mvbs.org – with much more content than before. The website overhaul was led by the Rock Island-based design firm Pixouls. It also was able to get grant money to help pay for the website redesign, Clevenstine said. It’s been a big challenge being completely volunteer-run all these years.
“We’re in crunch time for the festival and that’s the other thing — the festival would absolutely not be possible without the support of the community and all the volunteers that man our ticket booth, that help with traffic control, help us set up all the fencing, sell the beer tokens, hand out the beers,” he said, noting it takes about 140 people working to put on the event. “We’ve got a virtual army of volunteers that we have to pull together for every one of these events. And I can’t say enough about that kind of support.”
For tickets to Blues Fest ($15 for a Sept. 17 one-day pass, $25 for a Sept. 18 pass, or $35 for both days), visit www.mvbs.org/blues-fest/.
