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Waterfront Blues Festival 2021 Preview

Bob Gersztyn 1 Comment

On Friday, July 2, 2021, Portland, Oregon’s “Waterfront Blues Festival” will begin the first of four days of live music ending on Monday, July 5. This year the festival takes place in a different location than normal due to the pandemic and will be a socially distanced limited capacity event. The location has been moved “upriver” less than a mile from Waterfront park to “The Lot at Zidell Yards.” Since the festival was cancelled last year, Peter Dammann, the festival’s artistic director explained that “it’s really important to us to host some version of our festival this year, to help carry us all – fans, crew, artists – forward until we can hopefully reopen at full strength back at Waterfront Park in 2022.” Revenue generated by the event supported the “Oregon Food Bank.”

“The Waterfront Blues Festival” began in 1988 and has an annual attendance numbering 80,000. The festival is the second largest blues festival in the nation and the largest west of the Mississippi. Normally a hundred to one-hundred-fifty different acts would perform on four different stages during the July 4 weekend event. The “Blues Foundation” in Memphis awarded it the “Keeping the Blues Alive Award for “Best Festival.”

This year the festival will be featuring nearly two dozen artists including Samantha Fish, Marc Broussard, MarchFourth, Ghost-Note, Karen Lovely & Ben Rice, Johnny Rawls, Kevin Selfe, Norman Sylvester, Hillstomp, and a dozen others. There will be two separately ticketed shows daily that include a 12-4 PM afternoon show and a 6-10 PM evening show. At the same time, all eight shows can be viewed in live streaming for free

July 2-5 from 12-4 PM: Tune into KBOO on 90.7 FM or stream online at kboo.fm

July 2-5 from 6-10 PM: Watch the concert live at waterfrontbluesfest.com

On Location socially-distanced seating pods will be furnished for 2, 4 or 6 people per ticket. “Each pod will come furnished, with chairs and a side table” with a view of the full stage as well as a “large format LED screen along with a site-specific sound system, and an on-site food and beverage program.”

 

Bob Gersztyn

As a teenager in Detroit, Michigan during the early 1960’s Bob Gersztyn saw many Motown and other R&B artists including Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. After his discharge from the army in 1968 he attended school on the GI Bill and spent the next 3 years attending concerts and festivals weekly. It was the seminal period in Detroit rock & roll that Bob witnessed spawning the MC5 and Stooges along with shows featuring everyone from Jimi Hendrix and the “Doors” to B. B. King and John Lee Hooker. In 1971 He moved to Los Angeles, California to finish his schooling where he became an inner city pastor promoting and hosting gospel concerts. He moved to Oregon in 1982 and began photographing and reviewing concerts for music publications. Since that time he has published myriads of photographs, articles, interviews, and contributed to 2 encyclopedias and published 6 books on everything from music to the military. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Bob%20Gersztyn His rock & roll photo art is available for sale on Etsy @: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ConcertPhotoImages?ref=seller-platform-mcnav Bob may be contacted personally at [email protected]

One thought on “Waterfront Blues Festival 2021 Preview”

  • Andrew
    September 19, 2024 at 4:15 pm
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    This is the perfect place for those who love live music and amazing performances. The festival will take place on a picturesque shore, and the best blues musicians will create an atmosphere that you will not want to forget. Be sure to try tickets for evite , if you want to spend an unforgettable weekend, recharge your batteries and enjoy cool rhythms, be sure to come to Waterfront Blues 2021!

    Reply

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