“Rollin’ Up The River”
30th Annual Chicago Blues Festival This Year, June 6-9
Shemekia Copeland And Bobby Rush Kicks-Off The Festival’s
Journey Up The Mississippi
The 30th Annual
Chicago Blues Festival expands to four days with a special opening night
concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park the evening of Thursday,
June 6 featuring a line-up of the genre’s next generation headlined by Shemekia
Copeland. Friday, June 7 the festival moves to Grant
Park where Bobby Rush kicks-off the festival’s journey from the
Mississippi Delta to Chicago and the world.
The 2013 Chicago Blues Festival is
“Rollin’ Up the River” celebrating the blues with a musical journey up
the Mississippi. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s there was a “great
migration” of African Americans from the southern United States to
Chicago. During that period, the “delta blues” landed in the “the
promised land,” establishing the foundation for the genre’s electric guitar
sound known as the “Chicago blues” style. The voyage will start in New
Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi on Friday then to Memphis, Tennessee on
Saturday ending in Chicago on Sunday, where the blues electrified the world.
Celebrating the future of blues
music, the festival will open for the first time in Millennium Park on June
6. Shemekia Copeland (crowned the “new” Queen of the Blues in
2011) will headline the evening with blues guitar prodigy and Buddy Guy
collaborator, Quinn Sullivan. The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m.
with openers Blues Kids of America followed by Jamiah on Fire &
The Red Machine.
Highlights of the festival in
Grant Park will include music on five stages: The Petrillo Music Shell,
Bud Light Crossroads Stage, Pepsi Front Porch, Mississippi Juke Joint and Windy
City Blues Society Stage. The festival will also pay special tribute to
Delmark Records on its 60th anniversary and a centennial celebration
of blues legend, Pinetop Perkins. The full line-up will be
announced later this spring.
Preview Events
May is “Blues Month” in Chicago featuring a number of
performances at various Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Library
locations throughout the City. Blues music will fill the halls of
the Chicago Cultural Center during May as part of the popular LunchBreak Series
each Tuesday and Thursday at 12:15, as well as Thursday evenings at 5:30
p.m. A preview on Daley Plaza is set for Monday, June 3.
The 30th Annual Chicago Blues Festival is presented
by the City of Chicago and produced by the Department of Cultural Affairs and
Special Events with the following sponsors: Aquafina, Bud-Light,
Communications, Pepsi, Mississippi Development Authority Tourism
Division, Louisiana Association of Convention and Tourism
Bureaus, 93 XRT, Communications Direct, LaGrou Distribution System and the
Chicago Transit Authority.
For more information please call (312) 744-3316 or visit www.chicagobluesfestival.us for
updates. To plan your trip to Chicago for the Blues Festival this June
6-9 visit www.choosechicago.com.
Join the blues conversation on Facebook (Chicago Blues Festival) and follow us
on Twitter, @ChicagoDCAS.
Department Of Cultural Affairs And Special Events
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
(DCASE) is dedicated to promoting and supporting Chicago’s arts and culture
sector. This includes, but is not limited to: fostering the development of
Chicago’s nonprofit arts sector, independent working artists, and for-profit
arts businesses; presenting high-quality, free or low-fee cultural programs
accessible to residents and visitors; and marketing the City’s cultural assets
to local, regional, and global audiences. DCASE produces nearly 2,000 public
programs, events and support services annually, generating millions in economic
benefits for the City of Chicago.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your post to UnRated Magazine - Chicago