The venue

We are having our first national Blues festival in Daytona and its only 102 days away! The venue is the Jackie Robinson Memorial Stadium on the corner of Beach Street and Orange Avenue. The stadium is really cool and will contribute to a great atmosphere for a festival. Its an older stadium with both bleacher seating and covered seating in case the sun is too much for some festival fans. It has many amenities that will make your day a little more comfortable, such as "real" bathrooms, a children's play area in case you can't get mom to babysit because she's going also. The stage will be set up behind second base so your view will be perfect from anywhere you sit, stand or lay for your favorite act. The infield in front of the stage will possibly have a dance floor as we are negotiating that right now. Most parts of the infield will be open to the more active fans who like to get up close and personal. You won't need any chairs, as they are not allowed on the infield, but a blanket might be an added luxury.

There are about five different parking lots available in the area of the stadium we are going to make one for motorcycle parking only and another area of a seperate lot closed off for street rods, corvettes and any other high value cars that should be parked in a discreet area.

There are several restaurants on Beach street with a wide variety of different foods from breakfast to formal dinners to pizza and mexican foods. Since our plan is to give everyone with a three day passes a laminate-type badge you'll will be able to leave and re-enter in case you want something other than the "ballpark offerings" at the stadium. Another advantage besides price, of buying a three day pass instead of a daily ticket.

There will be an "afterparty" held for general admission ticket holders just down the street from the stadium at the BLUE GROTTO with the DAN LAWSON BAND playing on Saturday and Sunday nights. I'll talk about the VIP saturday night party in my next blog.

Hello, everyone this is my very first blog post so I could use all the help I can get. I started the Daytona Blues Festival as a non-profit organization several months ago to bring great national acts to the Daytona Beach, Florida area into a 3 day weekend festival setting. We are working real hard to make this a great weekend and give everyone who attends a feeling of money well spent for a great time.

We have 14+ acts set for the weekend with the first one starting about 6:00 p.m. on Friday night, that would be acoustic blues great Ben Prestage, followed by Tampa's own Damon Fowler, then Blues music award winner for best song of the year Mike Zito (Pearl River) and finally that Blues Guitar Legend that you remember from the movie The Blues Brothers, Matt"Guitar" Murphy backed the unique and very talented South Florida Band, The Nouveaux Honkies.

Saturday will be a long day for all you blues aficionado's, we are starting at High Noon with the swing/blues sax playing 6th Street Rhythm and Blues Review, followed by the Nouveaux Honkies doing what they do best. Next coming by way of France via Chicago/ South Florida Harmonica extraordinare Nico Wayne Toussaint his band is followed by Daytona's own Homeboy Victor Wainwright and the Wild Roots who have become the boogie piano band from Beale Street. Finally our "double Headliners" Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King, the Texas Bluesmen who will get you rockin' with there new album that's been the most highly downloaded album off of the "net". And finally that special Lady who really sings the blues all the way from California, cancer survivor Candye Kane, who we absolutely love, her voice will get in your head and just stay there.

We have a VIP after party on Saturday night for VIP ticket holders with a very special performance planned. But on Sunday it all starts again at noon with Samuel James a very special story teller/ acoustic blues musician who cannot be missed. Followed by Sean Carney's band out of Ohio, Sean started Blues For A Cure. Then little miss Boogaloo from Mississippi, Pinetop Perkins award recipient, Eden Brent, followed by South Florida's own J.P. Soars and the Red Hots. And finally the harp player of harp players all the way from California, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers.