The best in blues, rock, hip-hop and other forms of upbeat music has taken over downtown Windsor.
The 2019 edition of LiUNA! Bluesfest is well underway this weekend, with music filling Riverfront Festival Plaza Saturday as well as all next weekend. Bluesfest began Friday with international acts like Vanilla Ice, 2 Live Crew, C&C Music Factory and Tone Loc scheduled to perform.
Saturday's music schedule will take on the Hot Rock Night theme, with headliners including The Autumn Kings, Billy Raffoul and X Ambassadors. Greatest Hits Live takes the Bluestown stage throughout the evening.
For the first time ever, Bluesfest will run two weekends, and the second weekend kicks off on Friday, June 12 with an all-blues night. Seven-time Grammy Award winner Buddy Guy headlines along with Sugaray Rayford and Eric Gales. On the Bluestown Stage, Scott Holt is scheduled to perform with special guest star Hurricane Ruth.
The finale on Saturday, July 13 will be a Celebration of Prince, with former bandmates of the late star and tribute bands dominating the schedule. Morris Day and the Times, the band from the classic Prince film Purple Rain, will headline along with the tribute group Purple Reign. Also on tap for Sunday is Kathleen Murray and the Groove Council on the main stage, with local band South River Slim on the Bluestown Stage. An afterparty sponsored by Mix 96.7 and featuring DJ Twin Flux rounds out the event.
As of Friday afternoon, tickets were still available at Bluesfest's official website for events for Saturday and all next weekend, though Bluesfest president Rob Petroni told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com in January that advance ticket sales were way up over 2018. Petroni also said the Windsor festival is generating quite a buzz in the music world.
“We’re talking about million dollar acts that we can’t yet afford. Our goal is to get there and if we get a few of these theme nights rolling we think we might be able to get there in the next couple or three years,” said Petroni at the time.
---with files from Paul Pedro