New Blues Festival Returns to Long Beach

Music enthusiasts have a major spectacle to look forward to, as the ninth annual New Blues Festival (NBF) makes its return to Long Beach’s Shoreline Aquatic Park.

The NBF is an annual music event held in the city that focuses on celebrating the incredibly long history of blues and roots music. With almost a decade of bringing music and entertainment to Long Beach, this year’s festival aims to be another major occasion for music lovers of all ages.

The festival was founded by Bill Grisolia; an independent musician and singer whose love for music goes all the way back to his early childhood. In the span of his lengthy career, Grisolia has performed in music venues and festivals across the country, including that of the NBF. He has also opened for numerous celebrity musicians and bands, including Los Lobos, Rick Derringer, War and Starship.

According to Grisolia, the city of Long Beach has always been home to major blues festivals, dating all the way back to the 1980s. However, for several years, the festivals suddenly stopped due to various circumstances. Grisolia, who first became involved in the genre of blues back in 2009, saw what he described as a big demand for Blues Music Festivals to make a comeback to the city.

“Long Beach has a long and great tradition of Blues Music,” said Grisolia. “And there has been pent-up intergenerational demand for a Blues festival in Long Beach.”

To Grisolia, to perform at the NBF is always something to look forward to. Not just for the love of music, but to also see music bring people together.

“Performing for this audience is a great joy because it is composed of both friends and fans, and also the people that have never heard our music before,” said Grisolia. “And so that’s a great thrill to be able to share our thoughts, spirit and enthusiasm with them.”

And it’s not just Grisolia set to perform as well. This year’s lineup for the NBF is filled with both up-and-coming talents, as well as well-known traditional music artists.

Headlining the first night of the festival is Dennis Jones, a professional singer and blue musician whose work has gone on to obtain music awards and nominations, including, most recently, a nomination for Best Blues Rock Album at the 2025 Blues Music Awards for his most recent album: “About Time.”

In a quick interview with Beachcomber, Jones explained he first found a love for music at a young age, after watching many local musicians play in his neighborhood.

“I originally wanted to be a drummer, but my parents weren’t having a big drum set in the house for kids,” Jones said, jokingly. “So, they asked me what my second choice was, and it was guitar.”

Jones first started out playing music under the genre of rock and roll, but he said what first attracted him to the blues was discovering how much rock and roll, as well as other music genres, stems from the blues.

“Basically, all American music is derived from the Blues, but especially Rock and Roll.” said Jones. “Like Muddy Waters says: the Blues had a baby, and they called it Rock and Roll. And that’s the truth.”

Jones continued: “So, once I found out where all my heroes were getting – what their influences were – the more I read about it, it took me all the way back to the blues: to Robert Johnson, Son House, Lead Belly and all those guys. And after I did my research and realized, ‘Wow, it’s not only cool and interesting, but also my culture.’”

Regarding the NBF, Jones said this will be his third appearance as a performer for the festival. According to Jones, the NBF is unique to other festivals and concerts he’s performed at, in part to his own history with the city and its past blues festivals.

“I had such a connection with Long Beach for years. Even though I live in LA, I was down there every weekend,” said Jones. “I’ve seen a lot of acts at the Long Beach Blues Festival many years ago. So, to be able to play there is just kind of nice, because it was something that I used to go to as a spectator”

Jones also added that one of the things he’s excited for about performing at the festival is to catch up with fellow musicians, as well as check out some of the younger talent’s performances on stage.

“I think there’s some people on the on the lineup that I’ve never seen,” said Jones. “So, it’s always good to check out and see what the young kids are doing, and see what some of the more established acts are sounding like nowadays”

Jones continued, “And also just to bring a big event like this back to Long Beach is a good thing, because the community really, really needs it. They have jazz and stuff occasionally, but it’s good to have a blues festival. It’s something they’ve been missing for a while.”

Accompanying Dennis Jones on the first night of the New Blues Festival will be several other blues artists and singers, including that of the George Foster Band, Jessica Kaczmarek, the JazzTone Ensemble and Patricia Manion.

Headlining the second night of the festival on the main stage will be award-winner and longtime blues singer and artist, Ana Popovic, who is best known for her combination of electric funk and slide guitar with the lyrical rhythm of blues.

Other artists performing on the second night include Blues Foundation Award winner Laurie Morvan, as well as Long Beach locals such as blues and jazz artist Shy but Flyy and the alt-rock band Familiar Faces.

The NBF will be held on Aug. 23 and 24 at Shoreline Aquatic Park in Long Beach, located on 200 Aquarium Way, Long Beach.

For more information on the festival, including how to buy tickets, you can visit their official website at https://newbluesfestival.com