BEST EVER BLUESFEST
Music festival sees record turnout
Another edition of Bluesfest Windsor has drawn to a close, but it’s hard for organizers to sing the blues when they’re tallying their best attendance figures yet.
“Beyond record-breaking,” said Rob Petroni, president of LiUNA Bluesfest Windsor. “It was an incredible show.”
Thousands of blues and rock fans filled the Riverfront Festival Plaza from Thursday night to Sunday night to enjoy food, drink, and more than two dozen musical acts.
Final numbers were still being crunched at press time, but Petroni said this year’s totals are shaping up to be the strongest they’ve been since LiUNA took over the festival in 2014.
Just going by online ticket sales, Petroni said the audience for 2017 was at least double what it was for 2016. He estimates $20,000 worth of tickets were sold on Saturday in the space of eight hours — compared to $16,000 in total ticket sales last year.
And then there were the beverage tokens. Petroni said last year’s edition sold 10,000 over the course of four days. This year’s edition? An estimated 20,000 on Saturday alone.
“It’s just way more people,” Petroni said. “We had a steady stream of traffic, every day.”
It didn’t hurt that the weather co-operated. In defiance of forecasts of rain, the sun was out and conditions were festival-worthy throughout the weekend.
Friday night’s highlight was Louisiana-born guitar hero Kenny Wayne Shepherd. “He was truly awesome,” Petroni said. “By far the best guitar player that I’ve ever seen perform live.”
Saturday night was an even bigger hit with the headline spot shared by long-running British boogie-rock band Foghat and Saskatoon retro-rockers The Sheepdogs.
Petroni said the arrangement of Foghat at 9:30 p.m. and The Sheepdogs at 11 p.m. was done with forethought. “I tried to put on a band that would cater to the older crowd at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.,” he said. “Then, after that, I put on a band that would cater to a younger crowd.”
“It worked. When Foghat finished, literally 2,000 people left. And then another 1,500 came in for The Sheepdogs. We turned the crowd. So at any time during the festival, it was jammed. As people were leaving, new people were coming in.”
Originally formed in 1971 in London, England, Foghat took the opportunity on the Bluesfest Windsor stage to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their best-selling album Foghat Live — which includes such time-honoured jams as Fool For the City and I Just Want to Make Love to You.
But the band saved their biggest hit — Slow Ride — for their encore. “They played every classic,” Petroni said. “Foghat cranked it up. They were loud and crisp. People were on their feet.”
Not to be outdone, The Sheepdogs kept heads nodding with their Juno-award-winning, guitar-driven tribute to analog sound. “They completely wowed the crowd,” Petroni said. “They’re like a bluesy, twangy call to everybody.”
To the surprise of organizers, all the energy that was expended on Saturday night didn’t diminish attendance the next day: Petroni said festival staff opened the gates on Sunday afternoon to a line of concertgoers waiting to enter.
“Sunday is normally our slow day,” Petroni said. “This year, we had a lineup at 1:30 p.m. That’s unheard of. We’ve never seen that before.”
Vendors reported consistent sales throughout the weekend.
What’s all this mean for the next edition of Bluesfest Windsor? “I already know we’re going to be able to amp it up for next year,” Petroni promised.