(BENTONIA, MS) – The 2016 Bentonia Blues Festival will take place all day Saturday, June 18, at the Holmes family farm, 313 Wilson-Holmes Road just north of Bentonia, Mississippi on Highway 49 North. The event will feature food and arts and crafts vendors, RV and tent camping (fees may apply), live music, and incredible raffles. Related events leading up to the Bentonia Blues Festival will happen every evening, June 13-17, with live music at the Blue Front Café.
The Bentonia Blues Festival 2016 line-up includes Leo “Bud” Welch, Lightnin’ Malcolm, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes with Dave Hundreiser, and more. Come out and have a great time and enjoy the show, just keep in mind that the Bentonia Blues Festival runs on juke joint time… times and order of performances are bound to change a bit. Relax and have a great time with us as we help to keep the Bentonia blues alive!
The Bentonia Blues Festival began in 1972 on a farm, just up the road from the world-famous Blue Front Cafe, on land owned by the Holmes family. It was a tiny event, with only one D.J. and Walter “Big Daddy” Hood (“500 lbs. of Blues”) performing a capella. The location of the festival was moved into downtown Bentonia, Mississippi in 2006, the year that the festival was revived after a decade-long hiatus. Since that time, the festival has grown from an attendance of a couple hundred, to ten thousand in recent years, and has attracted blues performers and fans from far and wide.
“When I started this festival in 1972, it was to help preserve the Bentonia style of blues, which is unique to this area. I knew then that it would be a great event, but I never knew it would be as big as it is now,” says Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, owner of the Blue Front Cafe and creator of the Bentonia Blues Festival. “The fact that so many people have become aware of this music and want to celebrate it every year with us here in Bentonia really warms my heart. Every year we have people here from a different country or state that’s never been before. The Bentonia blues is still alive, and it’s right here.”
Join us for the Bentonia Blues Festival and related events in Bentonia, Mississippi from June 13-18!
