Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on at the Bluesfest

By: Noah Gecelovsky

The lineup for the highly anticipated LiUna! Bluesfest Windsor 2018 has finally been released and blues fans are in for a good weekend this summer.

On Feb. 21, LiUna!625 members and the Canada South Blues Society held a press conference at the Windsor Star News Building in Windsor, Ont. to release the details and information for Windsor’s 2018 Bluesfest.

At the press conference, LiUna! Bluesfest president Rob Petroni discussed the lineup of performers, sponsors for the event, the latest ticket sales and schedule layout. He said several annual goals have already been met.

“We will be increasing everything from the bands to the experience, to our footprint getting larger on site this year,” said Petroni. “The lineup starts the minute we end the festival, but it’s always a moving target. This year I’m proud to say we booked everybody a lot earlier…and we’ve already surpassed online ticket sales. We haven’t even released the headliners yet.”

Some performing acts will include: Sugaray Rayford, Pat Travers Band, Johnny Lang and highly acclaimed blues artist Beth Hart.

Local Windsor blues artist South River Slim will be making his second consecutive appearance at Windsor’s Bluesfest.

“It’s great to be invited back,” said Slim. “They’ve changed it more this year too with different setups and there are more changes of course to come.”

Slim played on the second stage known as the Bluestown stage between performances last year to keep the music going all day. The original plan was to have Slim play on the main stage, but he prefers a more intimate atmosphere with his crowd.

“I like being closer to people to see their faces — I usually jump off stage too,” said Slim.

In previous years, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were only available for people over the legal drinking age (19 and up) and Sundays were be designated as “family day” for all ages to come and enjoy the event. This year however, the LiUna! has made all four days 19 and up and brought in a surprise twist for the Sunday acts.

The Bluesfest will take place at Windsor’s Festival Riverfront Plaza from July 12 to July 15 and will feature big headlining acts as well as more surprise acts that are yet to come. Early bird tickets start at $30 for a single day, $80 for three days and $100 for the four-day event.