Simply Texas Blues Festival Takes Over Downtown Saturday

It’s that time again, time to pull out the lawn chairs and fill up your cooler and head to S. Oakes St. in historic downtown San Angelo for the 7th annual Simply Texas Blues Festival. With over a dozen performing bands and solo acts, a car and bike show, along with a rib cook off, poker run and jalapeno popper challenge, this year’s festival is full of entertainment and good eats for everyone.

The 200 block of S. Oakes St. will be blocked to through traffic, the cook off and the car and bike show will take place closer to the Cactus Hotel, the main stage will be set up closer to the corner of Oakes and Concho Ave.  The former Sealy Flats was purchased by the owners of Fifi DuBois and has been renamed The Lagoon Lounge. "We will be open for business all day on Saturday, offering an oasis escape from the street crowd," said partner of the lounge, Toni Hunter. "We have a lot of exciting changes in store for this location, and the Blues Fest this weekend will just be a small sneak preview for what's in store," Hunter said.

A variety of vendors will be set up along the barricaded street where you will find food, arts/crafts and many other handmade items for sale.

This year, the headlining acts are Ghost Town Blues Band and Samantha Fish. The blues band competition kicks off at noon Saturday. All of the bands entered will be judged throughout the day and the winners will be in two categories, band and solo/duo. Winners will be announced at 6:30 p.m.

“Anyone that wants to enter the rib cook off needs to register by 9 a.m. Saturday morning,” said Mike Martin, cook-off organizer. “In the past you had to register before the event, but having open registration until the morning of allows more entries,” he said. “There will also be a jalapeno popper contest that is completely free to enter, and has a $200 prize for the best poppers.”

The jalapeno poppers will be judged at 1:30 p.m. and the rib cook-off will be judged at 4 p.m. After the judges have completed their scoring based on appearance, taste and tenderness, the competition will be open to the general public, using a scoring system set by The Blues Festival. Awards and pay-out for both competitions will be announced at 6:30 p.m. that evening.

“The great thing about the cook off is that after all of the prize monies are awarded whatever is left over goes into the scholarship fund,” said Martin. “Last year The Big Rib Scholarship was able to award $1,500 in scholarships to Howard and ASU students. All of the scholarships awarded stay local.”

The San Angelo Blues Society has been doling out scholarships for hardworking student musicians since 2008. To qualify, a student must complete an application and have a sponsor, have completed at least nine semester credit hours, and have a particular interest in blues music that has been previously demonstrated. Scholarship honorees also receive a year’s membership to the society.  The SABS has awarded scholarships in excess of $22,000 to college students in the past seven years.

The SABS is the only blues society in the west Texas area that is an active member of The Blues Foundation, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee. The society is also the only foundation in the area to provide entrance into the International Blues Challenge. The organization is world renowned for preserving blues music history, promoting blues education and hosting numerous events like the Blues Hall of Fame Awards.

Based upon the historical turnout for this popular event, expect 8,000 to 10,000 people downtown this weekend for the festival, depending upon the weather. More information is here.