New Blues Festival Cancels September Show

The blues has a complicated festival history in Long Beach, starting with the first Long Beach Blues Festival held at Veteran’s Stadium in 1980. Co-founded by then-KLON blues DJ Bernie Pearl, about a year later, the station was acquired by the Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) Foundation and moved to the CSULB campus.

 

In the 1980s through about 2000, the Long Beach Blues Festival was second only to the Grand Prix as the premier annual event in Long Beach featuring blues luminaries like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Dr. John, Lowell Fulson and Bobby Blue Bland as well as soul stars like James Brown. 

 

Held at the CSULB grounds, it drew as many as 20,000 fans from all over the region as well as many international fans of the music and brought great coverage to Long Beach. However, neither the Third or Fourth District council office connected with the event. On one occasion, Fourth District Councilman Tom Clark came to the festival grounds with noise complaints from neighbors.

 

In 2010, the Long Beach Blues Festival was abandoned by the private management of the campus radio station, a few years after the KLON call letters were changed to KKJZ. 

 

Four years later, came a new player to fill the blues gap, the New Blues Festival began at Gemmrig Park behind the Long Beach Towne Center on a Labor Day Sunday, for decades, the weekend for the Long Beach Blues Festival. 

 

About one thousand blues fans braved the humid early afternoon heat in 2014 to see the 10 featured acts like Whiteboy James, the Bernie Pearl Blues Band and Jim Belushi. 

 

New Blues Festival founder Bill Grisolia moved the show to El Dorado Park, attracting about 8,000 blues fans in 2018. 

 

The promised return of the New Blues Festival 2019 featuring Guitar Shorty, Eric Sardinas and James Harman Blues Band to be held on September 1 and 2 at El Dorado Park was called off. 

 

Currently in Valencia Spain, Grisolia, in an email, stated, “Parks & Recreation Commission didn’t approve festival so we are appealing to city council. That should happen within the month for a Nov. 2 or 3rd date.”

 

Long Beach Parks and Recreation stated the reason for the denial was lack of a timely application, which generally must be made six months before the event. After Grisolia responded to questions about the cancelled festival, an online notice about the pending festival date was removed.

 

steve@beachcomber.news