Music fills Optimist Park during annual festival

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Guests at the festival enjoyed the performances while sitting on beach chairs.

The sounds of Mississippi Delta Blues filled the air last Saturday as Optimist Park hosted the third annual Great Basin Blues Festival, presented by Lone River Productions and Ratliff Law Offices.

Fans from all over Idaho flocked to the park to check out their favorite artists and listen to some vintage blues music.

The artists on this year's bill included returning artists T-Model Ford, Bill Abel, Robert Belfour, the B-3 Side and the Love Abiding Church. They were joined by local artists John Nemeth and the BoDo Brothers.

Plans are currently in the works for next year's festival, but according to Bryant, among the many options discussed include taking the festival to Boise.

According to Bryant, a personal goal for next year's festival is to bring back Belfour and Ford and join them with Cadillac John, a previous festival performer, to perform on stage for the first time.

"I think it went great. The turnout wasn't what we expected, but for those who showed up they got to see something you can't see anywhere else. I enjoyed it," said Bryant.

See the Mountain Home News for the complete story.

More photo's available in the Mountain Home News Photo Gallery

Comments

View 3 comments

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

Your website is great and informative. Other than that the advertising seemed late in the summer for it, so we had already made plans to go to the fair. Advertise earlier for better turn-out, the music is awesome. Please do not take this event away from Mountain Home, it would be a disservice to the community.

-- Posted by Ds_Seester on Thu, Aug 27, 2009, at 9:29 AM
You would probably have seen a better turnout if you had reduced the price of admission. $20 per person seems a little steep with our economy now a days. You seem to have focused so much attention towards your "VIP" tent that you neglected to consider the rest of the community. I hear there was only about 90 people at any given time out there - what a shame. But I have heard from several people that they would NEVER attend this function again, because they were made to feel "unworthy" because they were not VIP's.

-- Posted by highschoolmom on Thu, Aug 27, 2009, at 12:00 PM
test

-- Posted by Mthomecitizen on Fri, Aug 28, 2009, at 2:22 PM

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration:

If you already have an account, follow this link to login
Otherwise, follow this link to register