The Tampa Bay Blues Festival was founded by Chuck Ross and a few of his friends in 1995. They knew that Vinoy Waterfront Park was an ideal location for a music festival, and that began a 30-year journey into the blues. Ross had been booking touring blues bands at his nightclub, the Ringside Cafe in St Petersburg, and it was a natural transition to expand those efforts to a blues music festival. Once again, this year’s festival will be staged on the tropical shores of Tampa Bay in downtown St. Petersburg on the weekend of April 10-12.
Over the years, the festival has earned a reputation as one of America’s best blues music events, and the festival won a “Keeping The Blues Alive” award from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation in 2011, recognizing the festival as one of the country’s preeminent blues festivals. It draws visitors from all around the world and from almost every state in the nation. For the past 30 years, the festival has also benefited its charity partner, PARC Center for Disabilities in Pinellas County, raising thousands of dollars for that organization.
A milestone year and big names…