News Release

Join blues fans from throughout the world at the 21st Waterfront Blues Festival, July 3-6 

‘The crown jewel of blues fests.’ – Blues to Do 

World-class festival helps fight hunger 

PORTLAND, Ore. (March 26, 2008) – World-class music. Gorgeous setting. Great cause.  What could be better?

Pack your bags and join blues fans from throughout the world at the 21st annual Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union, July 3 to 6, 2008.

This world-class festival takes place annually on the grassy banks of the beautiful Willamette River at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Ore., with spectacular views of the Portland skyline to the west and Mt. Hood to the east.

The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is an anomaly in the festival world. There is no other festival like it anywhere!

• Now in its 21st year, the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi and the second-largest blues festival in the nation. The festival annually attracts more than 120,000 blues fans from throughout the world.

• Touted as one of the best-run festivals anywhere, it remains a grassroots festival, operated by Oregon Food Bank – a nonprofit, charitable organization – and run with the help of more than a thousand volunteers.

• The festival raises food and funds to help people who are hungry throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. Admission is a suggested donation of only $10 and two cans of food per person, per day. A four-day pass that includes a collector button and poster, will be available for $30. Gate donations benefit Oregon Food Bank’s mission: to eliminate hunger and its root causes ... because no one should be hungry. This is all the more important this year as food, fuel and healthcare costs climb, foreclosures and layoffs increase and world food supply dwindles.

The 2008 festival will feature more than 100 performances on four stages, including:

The 2008 festival will feature more than 100 performances on four stages including soulful songstress Phoebe Snow, Chicago harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite and guitarist Elvin Bishop, boogie-blues-rock pioneers Canned Heat, British neo-soul crooner James Hunter, acclaimed guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Mississippi bluesman Robert "Wolfman" Belfour New Orleans guitarist Eric Lindell and brass virtuoso Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, British blues-rockers Back Door Slam, Texas soul and folk singer Ruthie Foster, multiple W.C. Handy Award-winning guitarist-songwriter-vocalist Rory Block, Texas guitarist Carolyn Wonderland, bluesman Arthur Adams and Los Angeles-based all-star group The Mannish Boys and many more to be confirmed.

JUST ADDED: A tribute to Stax Records and Memphis Soul featuring Portland's soul allstars, followed by a performance by funk and soul singer and songwriter Isaac Hayes, presented by Chinook Winds Casino Resort.

A full-day Zydeco Swamp Romp, July 5, will showcase a spectacular Gulf coast lineup including Rosie Ledet, the "Zydeco Sweetheart" Chris Ardoin and Nu Step Zydeco; Cedryl Ballou and the Zydeco Trendsetters; and Diki Du and the Zydeco Krewe.

In addition, the festival will offer five blues cruises, a Louisiana Pavilion, workshops, interviews, Fourth of July fireworks and more.

Oregon Food Bank distributed donated food throughout a statewide network of more than 919 nonprofit, hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash., and works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through education and advocacy.

###