Third Blues Festival expected to bring crowds

by Melissa Wilson

SBJ Staff

For local music fans with a craving for the soulful croonings of the Delta, the third annual Greater Ozarks Blues Festival is set to kick off at 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at Springfield Brewing Co. and carry over to Sept. 11. A pub crawl, beginning at 9 p.m. both nights, will also be part of the festivities.

With more sponsors, a larger budget of $120,000 for the event has allowed the Downtown Dining and Entertainment Commission, which has presented the Blues Festival downtown since it began in 1997, to expand the event to cover two days and bring in more nationally known musicians this year, according to Matt Miller, DDEC executive director and Blues Festival co-chair.

"We've really taken the festival to a new level as far as talent and infrastructure ... we've almost doubled our budget for the bands. We really hope Springfieldians respond to the talent we're bringing in this year," Miller said.

Attendance to the blues fest has increased each year.

Miller said the DDEC is expecting this year's attendance to reach somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000.

"Our entire goal is to introduce more and more people to the downtown area, and that's exactly what (the Blues Festival) does," Miller said. "From an economical standpoint, for every new person you introduce or re-familiarize with downtown, there's a chance they'll come back later," Miller said.

Miller said the blues festival, and other functions like it, are also ways for the DDEC to counteract the recent negative publicity surrounding downtown as a result of Park Central Square's popularity as a teen hangout.

"It's a constant challenge to deal with Springfield's collective perception of downtown, and absolutely, this is a way to show people what downtown is really like," Miller said.

"If you come to our festival and see all the different shops and how clean it is, not to mention the square and how beautiful it looks now, it will give you an overall perspective," he added.

Miller said the blues fest will benefit the same three organizations it has in years past: Springfield Little Theatre, Springfield Symphony and the DDEC, and organizers hope to raise a minimum of $10,000 per organization.

Other than Miller's new position as executive director of the DDEC, another change in the organization of the event is in the process of securing an outdoor music permit for the event, Miller said. In years past, outdoor music event organizers obtained permits through the city.

Now, Miller said, the permits are applied for through the Urban Districts Alliance office, which in turn makes recommendations to the city manager on whether the permit should be granted. The city manager has the final say. Miller said the change has made the permit process much easier.

UDA Marketing and Events Coordinator Barb Baker said other downtown music promoters seem pleased with the change, as well.

"They like coming to our office to fill out the paperwork, and there seems to be more of an actual process of getting the permit now," Baker said.

Headliners at the Greater Ozarks Blues Festival will include Larry Garner, Deborah Coleman and Charlie Musselwhite, as well as Brody Buster, who began performing blues harp at age 9 and is said to be the prot?g? of blues legend B.B. King.

Miller said the musicians at the blues fest are paid a flat fee to perform and may be given bonuses afterward, depending on how much the festival takes in.

Advance tickets are $15 and can be bought at Kaleidoscope or through Metrotix.