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Pay Your Dues with the Blues
Waterfront Blues Festival, July 3 to July 8
Celebrate 20 glorious years of the largest
blues festival west of the Mississippi with the
2007 Waterfront Blues Festival - a five-day
event kicking off Tuesday, July 3 with a
special 20th anniversary blues cruise.
The festival is produced by and as a benefit
for Oregon Food Bank. Daily admission is a
donation of $8 per person per day and two
cans of food. All festival proceeds benefit
The musical feast includes
four stages and 125 stellar
artist performances from
throughout the world,
including The Neville
Brothers, The Blind Boys o f
Alabama and Mavis Staples.
Oregon Food Bank’s work to eliminate hun
ger and its root causes in Oregon and south
west Washington.
The festival officially opens at noon on
Wednesday, July 4, and run through Sunday,
July 8 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in
downtown Portland.
The musical feast includes four stages and
125 stellar artist performances from through-
out the world, including The Neville Brothers,
The Blind Boys of Alabama and Mavis Staples.
O ff stage you can watch a spectacular
fireworks show on July 4, take a cruise on the
Portland Spirit as it navigates the Willamette
River, attend educational workshops and in
terviews with festival artists and take your
kids to special, age-appropriate activities. The
party continues after the show each evening
with jam sessions, dances and outdoor blues
films.
On Sunday the festival will pay tribute to the
artists who call Louisiana home with a special
GulfCoastCelebration. Baton Rouge guitarist
Tab Benoit will head up the Voice of the
Wetlands Allstars, a group formed to raise
funds to save Southern Louisiana’s wetlands
before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region.
The Neville Brothers will also perform that
day.
Festival highlights this year include Windy
City Blues on Wednesday, July 4, a tribute to
the British Blues Invasion featuring Eric Burdon
and the Animals on Friday, July 6 and an all-
day Zydeco Swamp Romp on Saturday, July
7.
Portland’sown MarchFourth inarching band
will close down the festival on Sunday, July 8.
For a complete schedule of the 125 artists
and groups and innumerable activities, visit
waterfrontbluesfest.com.
Truly New Orleans, the Neville Brothers boast a purebred lineage back to
the original kings of Louisiana funk. The brothers will blend old school
with powerful new sounds on Sunday, July 8 at the Waterfront Blues
Festival.
Dirty deeds are done dirt cheap: the Dirty Dozen Brass Band delivers a mix of traditional New Orleans
jazz, funk, R&B and pop. They'll perform aboard the Portland Spirit Blues Cruise on Saturday, July 7.
This year's festival lineup includes the British Blues Invasion, featuring
Eric Burdon and the Animals, known for their gritty, bluesy sound and
deep-voiced frontman (remember their classic “House of the Rising
Sun“?)
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