Utah's biggest and best blues music festival - happens each June, usually Father's Day weekend.
Since becoming a 501(c)(3) in May of 2014 the Utah Blues Society has brought a top level Blues festival back to Utah. Held each year in mid-June, usually Father's Day weekend, it is our signature fundraising event of the year and has grown steadily every year. All money raised from the festival goes toward supporting our programs within the state of Utah and making sure the festival continues to grow responsibly and becomes an asset to the community for future generations to enjoy.
History
There’s a long history of top shelf Blues in Utah. Some of the earliest Blues artists performed at the Park West Blues Festivals in the early ’80s, (B.B. King, Muddy Waters, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, Sonny & Brownie, amongst many other legends!), and after that at the Snowbird Jazz & Blues Festivals from 1987 – 2009. Blues legends like Son Seals, Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Johnny Winter, Little Milton, Jimmie Vaughan, Elvin Bishop, Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, and many more appeared. In the clubs, the places to be were the Zephyr Club and Dead Goat Saloon which are still remembered with reverence by touring Blues bands today! (Both coincidentally closed in the summer of 2003).
After Snowbird lost corporate funding, it too disappeared and blues fans didn’t have a festival to see local, regional, muchless national headliners, perform on one bill. In answer to this void, the R&B Rendezvous, at Rockport State Park, was started in 2009 by local musicians and blues enthusiasts like Greg & Sharon Daniels and KRCL blues DJ Brian Kelm. The Rendezvous showcased the best in local blues talent, and raised money for worthwhile causes within the community. After gaining our non-profit status in 2014, the Utah Blues Society went about creating a festival that would showcase both local but predominantly national blues based artists on one bill. On June 13, 2015, the 1st Utah Blues Festival occurred at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. This is somewhat of a misnomer, with the previous festivals mentioned above, but this was the first Utah Blues Festival produced by the UBS as a non-profit. We had several regional headliners, two stages offering the best in local/regional talent, and a free harmonica workshop that played to a standing room only audience! We were successful in re-introducing a blues festival to the Salt Lake valley and our patrons eagerly came out to hear great live blues music in a relaxed setting.
In 2016, already needing more room to grow, we made the decision to move the 2nd Annual Utah Blues Festival to downtown Salt Lake City at the Gallivan Center. It accommodated a much larger crowd comfortably, had shade, and plenty of on-site facilities that made it easier on our guests. It’s easy to get there by TRAX and there's plenty of convenient parking in the area. It’s our new home and one in which we can grow in the years to come. 2016 had three incredible national headliners that provided an unbelievable all-star jam finale people are still reveling in! (Bernard Allison, Toronzo Cannon AND Ronnie Baker Brooks - WOW! Never before played all together). This all-star jam finish has become a yearly event, with each one topping the year before.
The festival has grown steadily year after year and in 2017 our line-up featured 4 national headliners, as well as three workshops. The cigar box guitar making workshop earned us a City Weekly award for “Best Festival Workshop for 2017”! The community and state have really supported this culturally relevant event in downtown Salt Lake City and understand that this is much more than just another music festival. Just about every major city has a blues festival of some sort and we are proud of what we are doing to put Utah on the map! We continue to attract blues fans from outside Utah (and even outside the U.S.!) and with our family friendly atmosphere, our local audience also continues to grow. We've had kids from our Blues in the Schools (BITS) program attend prior festivals and share their experiences with our patrons.
The 4th Annual Utah Blues Festival was held on June 16, 2018 at the Gallivan Center, and in the spirit of bringing the best in blues to Utah we featured FIVE national headliners, alongside our ever popular free workshops throughout the day, as well as the best in non-profits and art and food vendors. As is tradition, the festival started with the UBS sponsored Blues Youth Showcase, sponsored in part through a grant we gave to the Music Garage (music school for kids).
For the 5th Annual UBF, we expanded to half a day on Friday, June 14, 2019 (5 - 10 p.m.), and the usual full day (noon - 10 p.m.) on Saturday, June 15, 2019.
We won't talk about what happened in 2020 and 2021!! But we came back barnstorming on June 10 and 11, 2022 for the 6th Annual Utah Blues Fest with 8 award winning national headliners and Mitch Woods in the after hours Marriott Piano Bar ("Club 88") after both nights! We repeated that successful agenda on June 16 and 17, 2023 for the 7th Annual UBS and plan to continue that format into the future.
For more information about the festival or opportunities to become a sponsor, volunteer, or be a vendor go to UtahBluesFest.org.
