The Long Beach Blues Festival, in
Long Beach, California, United States, was established fully in 1980,[1] and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the
West Coast (first being the
San Francisco Blues Festival). It was held on Saturday and Sunday of
Labor Day weekend.[2] For many years it was held on the athletic field on the
California State University, Long Beach campus. The 2009 festival, the 30th annual, was held at Rainbow Lagoon in
downtown Long Beach.[3] The Festival went on hiatus in 2010, and has not been held since.
The festival was organized and used as a
fundraiser by
KKJZ, a publicly supported
radio station on the CSULB campus broadcasting blues and
jazz in Southern California.
History
The Festival was set up in 1980 by jazz radio station KLON (later renamed to KKJZ) in Long Beach, California under the direction of Bernie Pearl,[1] who was the host of a blues program "Nothing But The Blues" on KLON at the time. The first Festival was a one-day event titled the "KLON Blues & Gospel Festival" held at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach, drawing only a small crowd of 700, resulting in a loss of $7,000 for the radio station. The Festival grew larger each year, becoming a major fund raising event for KLON. From 1996 through 2000, KLON expanded the event to 3 days utilizing the entire Labor Day weekend. It went back to the 2-day event in 2001 because CSULB wanted Labor Day to clean up the field for their use in the new school semester. The Festival venue for the second Fest and thereafter was the North Athletic Field at Cal State University, Long Beach (CSULB), with the exception of 1992 which was held at Shoreline Aquatic Park in downtown Long Beach, and at Rainbow Lagoon in downtown Long Beach beginning in 2008 and 2009.
In 2010, the Blues Festival went on hiatus because of economic conditions and was replaced with a one-day 'Blues Bash', held at the
Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the CSULB campus.[4]
2000: Bo Diddley with Billy Boy Arnold, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Son Seals with Sugar Blue, Lonestar Shootout: Lonnie Brooks, Long John Hunter, and Phillip Walker, Bernard Allison, Etta James, Bobby Womack, Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Jimmy Dawkins, Carl Weathersby with Melvin Taylor, Mavis Staples with the Staple Singers Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Robert Cray Band, Harpmasters Jam II with Rod Piazza, James Cotton,
Johnny Dyer, Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Branch, and the Mighty Flyers, DJ
Gary "The Wagman" Wagner served as emcee
2001: James Harman, Koko Taylor, Guitar Shorty, Jimmie Vaughan, Lucky Peterson, Solomon Burke, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Percy Sledge, Howard Tate, Little Milton
2002: Arthur Adams, Otis Rush, Ben E. King, The Ohio Players, Jeff Healey, Robert Cray Band, Mable John, Roy Gaines, Tyrone Davis, Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm, Dr. John, Etta James
2003: King Brothers, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Carey Bell, Hubert Sumlin, Charlie Musselwhite, Keb' Mo', The Neville Brothers, Billy Preston, Irma Thomas & The Professionals, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Cocker, Al Green