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The Bradenton Blues Festival is an annual festival held in December in Bradenton, Florida. It is organized by Realize Bradenton, [1] a group which promotes Bradenton's Downtown as a destination for arts, culture, history and sports. The performers are both national and regional blues artists. The event takes place at Bradenton Riverwalk, which opened in October 2012. [2]
The inaugural event on December 1, 2012 featured Ruthie Foster, Kenny Neal, Biscuit Miller, Johnny Sansone, Southern Hospitality, Homemade Jamz Blues Band, The Steve Arvey Horn Band featuring Henry Lawrence, and Ben Prestage. [3] Harry Potter book series illustrator Mary GrandPré produced a soft-geometry style poster for the event, the proceeds of which went to support local children's music programs. [4] [5] The festival attracted a crowd of about 3000. [6] [7]
The December 7, 2013 event attracted about 3,500 listeners, and featured John Németh, Anthony Gomes, Trampled Under Foot, Eddie Shaw, Shemekia Copeland, Johnny Rawls, Albert Castiglia, and Doug Deming. [8]
The event, which took place on Saturday, December 6, 2014 at downtown Bradenton's Riverwalk, attracted an audience of more than 3,200. Live streaming of the festival, a cooperative effort of Realize Bradenton, Blues Music Magazine and METV, had 3,250 views from all 50 states and 37 foreign countries, including music lovers from Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Hungary, Finland, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Thailand, Romania, South Africa, China, Japan, Italy, Belize, Belgium, Mexico, and more. New this year was a food court with southern-inspired cuisine from seven Bradenton-area restaurants and craft beer produced specifically for the festival by Darwin Brewing Co. [9] Acts on the bill for 2014 included Dennis Gruenling, Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones, E.G. Kight, Samantha Fish, Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers, Marcia Ball, and Dave Muskett. [10]
The 2015 festival took place on December 5, 2015 and was attended by over 3000 fans. The Bradenton Herald described the festival as "The biggest live music event in Bradenton" and went on to say the 2015 event "was as big a hit this year as it has been each year since it began in 2012." [11] In 2015, website Blues 411 named the Bradenton Blues Festival "Best Festival of the Year." [12] The line-up featured In Layman Terms, Girls with Guitars, Super Chikan and the Fighting Cocks, Larry Garner, Mike Zito and The Wheel, Joanna Connor, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, and Janiva Magness.
The 2016 Festival occurred on December 3, 2016, with a "Blues Appetizer" concert on December 2. In this, its fifth year, the festival was promoted as a weekend-long event. [13]
Kicking-off the festival weekend was the free "Blues Appetizer", featuring Ari and the Alibis and Damon Fowler. The main festival concert was on December 3, 2016, featuring the Slam Allen Band, Sugar Ray Norcia and the Blue Tones, Larry McCray, Jason Ricci, Victor Wainwright & the Wildroots, The Golden State/Lone Star Revue, and headliner Ronnie Baker Brooks. In addition, Ilana Katz Katz played between each set. The weekend wrapped up with a Blues Brunch on December 4, 2016, featuring Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones. [14]
The Bradenton Blues Festival Weekend starts on December 6, 2019, with a free 'Blues Appetizer' concert. The Bradenton Blues Festival itself is scheduled for December 7. [15]
Bradenton is a city and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2019 population to be 59,439.
Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is at the southern end of the Tampa Bay Area, north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019 Sarasota had a population of 58,285. In 1986 it became designated as a certified local government. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area, and is the seat of Sarasota County. Long the winter headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus, many landmarks in Sarasota are named for the Ringlings.
The Selecter are a 2 Tone ska revival band from Coventry, England, formed in mid-1979.
State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota (SCF) is a public college with campuses in the Manatee and Sarasota counties of Florida. Part of the Florida College System, it is designated a "state college" because it offers a greater number of bachelor's degrees than community colleges. SCF is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Founded in 1957 as Manatee Junior College, it was known as Manatee Community College from 1985 to 2009.
Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band.
WSNN-LD, virtual channel 39, is a low-powered television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States. Owned by Citadel Communications and managed by LDB Media, LLC, the station's Suncoast News Network (SNN) service provides news coverage focusing primarily on the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota Metropolitan Statistical Area. SNN operates in conjunction with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and is headquartered in downtown Sarasota. On cable, the station is carried on Comcast channel 6 (SD) and 400 (HD) in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties; Frontier FiOS on channel 9 (SD) and 509 (HD); and Spectrum channel 20 (SD) and 1020 (HD). WSNN's transmitter is located on Cedar Hammock Lane in Sarasota.
Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 2006, it was restarted in 2017.
The Bradenton Marauders are a Minor League Baseball team of the Low-A Southeast and the Low-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Bradenton, Florida, and play their home games at LECOM Park, which also serves as the Pirates' spring training facility.
Friends of Seagate Inc. was founded in the late 1980s by Kafi Benz as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Sarasota, Florida. The historic preservation group lead local efforts protect historic property in the Sarasota-Bradenton area from commercial development. The group later expanded its scope to include environmental conservation. Its most notable project was the preservation of Seagate, the former home of Cincinnati, Ohio, industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. and his wife, Gwendolyn, and its later owners, Mabel and Freeman Horton. In 2002 the organization tried to secure Rus-in- Ur'be, an undeveloped parcel of land in the center of the Indian Beach Sapphire Shores neighborhood, as a local park; however, as of 2014, real estate developers intend to build condominium units at the site.
The Sarasota Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Sarasota, Florida. The orchestra is administratively based at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center. The orchestra performs concerts in Sarasota at several venues:
Realize Bradenton is a nonprofit organization in Bradenton, Florida responsible for implementing the Cultural Master Plan for downtown Bradenton. It was created in November 2009 with a mission to develop and promote downtown Bradenton by making it a unique and preferred cultural destination for residents and visitors.
Reggie Sears is an American recording artist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer, and a former child prodigy guitarist known for his songs "Dirty Dancer", "Dip My Dipper", and "You Betrayed Me."
Samuel Joseph Woolf is an American singer-songwriter from Bradenton, Florida, who finished in fifth place on the thirteenth season of American Idol. Shortly after his participation on the series, he released the EP Pretend, which reached the top ten on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Since then, he has released several non-album singles.
Matthew James Walden is a singer-songwriter from Bradenton, Florida. His first original single, Flipped the Script, was released on May 16, 2015, and charted at No. 38 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart. His first EP, Life, was released July 7, 2015, and on its first day of pre-sales, hit No. 7 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter Top Album chart. Walden released his first full-length album, Walden., on May 20, 2016, and reached No. 25 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter Top Album chart. Walden's single "With You" was released on April 27, 2017, and has more than 229,000 plays on Spotify.
Døvydas is a Lithuanian-born musician, composer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Døvydas forged a successful career as an innovative soloist. He was born and raised in Lithuania, and moved to the United States in 2012. Døvydas has appeared on national television in Lithuania, such as Lithuania's Got Talent 2009, Ring of Young Talents 2010, Lithuania's Pick for Eurovision 2011, and he was also featured in a book about Lithuanian rock music titled Lietuvos Roko Istorija – written by the national-award-winning Lithuanian author Mindaugas Paleckis.
Dennis Gruenling is an American electric blues harmonicist, songwriter, record producer and radio DJ. He has released seven albums since 1999, with his most recent being 2016's Ready or Not. His contributions to other musician's albums has included stints playing the harmonica, audio engineering and mixing, production and album sleeve artwork. Gruenling has also been employed for over a decade as a DJ on WFDU college radio. His dynamic harmonica playing style has been inspired variously by Little Walter, Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet.
Bradenton Riverwalk is a 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) public green space located along the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, between Business US 41 and South Tamiami Trail.
Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones is an American blues band. They have released four albums since 2002, with the most recent, Complicated Mess (2018), appearing in the US Billboard Blues Albums Chart.
Duane Betts is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is a member of the Allman Betts Band, and leads Duane Betts and the Pistoleers. He is also a guitarist and singer for the Dickey Betts Band, led by his father, Dickey Betts. He was previously a member of several other groups, including Backbone69, Whitestarr, Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Brethren of the Coast, Dawes, and Jamtown.
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