Waterfront Blues Festival

Coordinates: 45°30′58″N 122°40′21″W / 45.516°N 122.6726°W / 45.516; -122.6726
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Waterfront Blues Festival
The festival's main stage in 2007
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s)
Inaugurated1988
Most recent2022
Websitehttp://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com/
Waterfront Blues Festival south main stage

The Waterfront Blues Festival is an annual event in

downtown Portland
.

History

Aerial view of the 2016 festival

The festival began in 1987 as the Rose City Blues Festival, sponsored by the Cascade Blues Association, to benefit the Burnside Community Council's projects for the homeless. The FM community radio station KBOO has broadcast performances from the event, throughout the festival's history. The following year, Oregon Food Share (predecessor of the Oregon Food Bank) became the beneficiary of the Rose City Blues Festival. In 1991, the name was changed to the Waterfront Blues Festival.

The festival celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2007, earning the Rose City Award from the Portland Oregon Visitors Association and an official U.S. Post Office postmark commemorating the festival.

There was no festival in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 festival was held at Zidell Yards, but 2022 saw the festival return to its usual location at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Waterfront main seating area

Art

Blues Festival poster

Every year there is a new poster for the Waterfront Blues Festival. The artist is

Gary Houston, who has been making the iconic poster art for the festival for eighteen years[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Gary Houston".

External links

45°30′58″N 122°40′21″W / 45.516°N 122.6726°W / 45.516; -122.6726