The Old Town BluesFest is a free music festival that takes place each year in the early autumn in Lansing, Michigan. It showcases nationally, regionally, and locally known blues artists such as W. C. Clark, Grana' Louise,

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and the Wolf Gang, A.C. Reed, Jan James, and Lady Sunshine and the X Band, Calvin Cooke and Sacred Steel Ensemble, Mojo Phoenix, Those Delta Rhythm Kings, the Automatic Blues Band, Root Doctor, Doug Deming and the All Stars, J.R. Clark, and more. The festival welcomes nearly 20,000 attendees over the weekend of the festival.

Festival history

The Old Town BluesFest was started by the Old Town Business and Art Development Association in 1994 under the name OctoberFest and without the specific focus on blues music. Lansing's

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

radio station, 92.1 WWDX, signed on as media sponsor; Message Makers, a local media company, became the founding business sponsor. In its early years, the festival welcomed such renowned artists as

Marcy Playground Marcy Playground is an American alternative rock band consisting of three members: John Wozniak (lead vocals, guitar), Dylan Keefe (bass), and Shlomi Lavie (drums). The band is best known for their 1997 hit " Sex and Candy". History Early ...

, Kid Rock,

Duncan Sheik Duncan Sheik (born November 18, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Sheik is known for his 1996 debut single " Barely Breathing", which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. He has composed m ...

and 19 Wheels, as well as local artists Powerface, Knee Deep Shag, The Lash, and The Weepers. In its early years, the festival had 2,000-3,000 attendees. In 2003, the festival committee changed the focus of the festival to blues music and welcomed local

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

94.9

WMMQ WMMQ (94.9 FM) is an American classic rock radio station licensed to East Lansing, Michigan. The station is owned by Townsquare Media. History What is now the current incarnation of WMMQ began broadcasting in 1963 as WVIC-FM, the sister stat ...

as its new primary media sponsor. 17 years later, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

caused the festival to go virtual.

References

External links

Old Town BluesFest
Music festivals established in 1994 {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Town Bluesfest Blues festivals in the United States Folk festivals in the United States Music festivals in Michigan Economy of Lansing, Michigan Tourist attractions in Lansing, Michigan Free festivals

Festival history

See also

References

External links