THE UPTON Blues Festival is expected to attract more than double the town’s population.
The annual three day event will take place from Friday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19 and will be showcasing the area for visitors from the length and breadth of England.
It is expected the festival will bring around £450,000 of extra revenue into the town with people spending money at hotels, B&Bs and festival camp sites.
Many shops will be staying open for the full weekend as they all predict it will be their best sales day.
There will be more than 100 performances taking to the stage over the weekend who will be playing everything from rhythm and blues to bluegrass and country blues to New Orleans, Acoustic and Soul and Gospel. The event will be run from three official stages and in 13 pubs throughout town.
As the festival has grown and evolved the management team, now a registered charity, has begun to focus on promoting and reaching out to the next generation of blues players.
Originally the workshops involved people in ‘play up’ activities but when the event reached beyond the traditional boundaries the decision was taken to promote ‘the blues’ to younger generations.
This ‘introduction to the blues’ had around 100 young people of varying musical experience take part – they were all taught to play, sing and write blues music. A video showing the highlights of this activity will be shown throughout the festival.
This project has been co-funded by the area’s RSA Academies and has previously featured special visits to all the local schools from four professional musicians.
Organisers hope the event will be good for younger people to see and experience top musical talent at its best so they can ‘get the music bug’ early.
Visit www.uptonbluesfestival.org.uk for more.
