After 21 festivals at Hawrelak Park, the Edmonton Blues Festival is moving to its new venue, also in the River Valley.
RE/MAX Field, home of the Riverhawks Baseball Club, will become the new home of the festival beginning this year. It runs August 25-27. While the location is changing, blues fans will enjoy the same calibre of performers they have in the past, as the Heritage Amphitheatre at Hawrelak Park undergoes City upgrades over the next three years.
Curated by Cam Hayden, founding member and producer of the festival, this year’s line-up will take blues fans on the kind of musical journey to which they’ve grown accustomed. Hayden, who has been promoting live shows since 1986, has been the well-known host of CKUA’s Friday Night Blues Party for the past 45 years. He begins production of the event with the “premise of bringing the very best players and singers out there in the blues.”
The baseball field maintains the intimacy of the Heritage Amphitheatre with the stage located between second base and the pitcher’s mound — the infield will be the dance floor. The new venue allows for an increased capacity to 4,300 at RE/MAX, from 3,000 at the Amphitheatre.
Assigned seating is new for this year, as are Luxury Box VIP seats, the best in the house. And hoping to cultivate a new generation of blues fans, kids 12 and under (accompanied by their parents) will be admitted for free.
Working with the sound company to see what would be required, Hayden said he looked at plenty of venues over the past 18 months. RE/MAX stood out above all others. A great community partner, the ballpark is not just a field, but a community entertainment hub that hosts a variety of events throughout the year, including concerts and graduation ceremonies.
Hearkening back to the first Friday of the first festival, the opening act in the new location is Rick Estrin & the Nightcats. Estrin was band leader, harmonica player and original singer of Little Charlie and the Nightcats who closed Friday night of the 1999 inaugural festival. Annika Chambers & Paul DesLauriers Band are debuting on Friday night. Their love story makes for some playful antics on stage. Having met at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis during the 2018 International Blues Challenge, the two were married in August 2019. Together they bring a unique mixture of soul and blues to the stage. Jimmie Vaughan, who first played the festival in 2004, will close out the evening.
Introducing people to music and musicians they’ve never heard also drives programming. The increased capacity has enabled an increased number of artistic performers. New acts to the festival this year are Tom Lavin and the Legendary Powder Blues Band, and Colin James.
Edmonton-based Jimmy and the Sleepers, bring their familiar electric blues sound to the stage as the openers on Saturday. Blues fans will be introduced to a new up and coming talent this year, Veronica Lewis, who has gathered many awards and accolades.
World-wide sensation Blue Moon Marquee, which has been touring internationally, will take the stage on Sunday afternoon. “The real trick,” says Hayden, “is creating flow to the musical presentation.”
James will close the Festival on Sunday night.
Hayden encourages all blues fans to get into the blues groove. “Buy tickets,” says Hayden, “come on up and have fun!” Dress for the elements though as the field doesn’t have the covering of the Amphitheatre — and it can be chilly in the River Valley.
Be there for the blues on a field of green..
