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Riverhead Blues and Music Festival
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The Riverhead Blues and Music Festival has expanded across genres to include rock, zydeco, jazz and more, and to three stages. The two-day festival presented by Vail-Leavitt Music Hall will take place in Riverhead with two stages on Peconic River behind Main Street and in the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, 18 Peconic Avenue, on Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19. Featured artists scheduled to appear include Savoy Brown, Rage and Beyond, Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys, and Little Toby Walker.
One of the earliest of British blues bands, Savoy Brown (with founder guitarist and longtime member Kim Simmonds at the helm) helped launch the UK blues/rock movement that paved the way for such acts as Led Zeppelin. Kim Simmonds, founding member of Savoy Brown, will also play a solo set. The rock band Rage and Beyond features drummer Bobby Marks, who toured with Dokken last summer, filling in for Mick Brown.
Little Toby Walker is a skilled singer and songwriter who draws inspiration from traditional and contemporary music. A local artist, Walker has earned international acclaim, and is the recipient of the 2002 International Blues Challenge Award. Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys is a festival favorite about whom the Wall Street Journal wrote, "Today's premier female artist is Rosie Ledet, whose soulful voice kicks her male counterparts right out of the club."
Other acts scheduled to appear include: Doug "Harmonica" McLean, Pat Hunter, MSB featuring Chrissie O'Dell, Bruce MacDonald, T-Bone and Franny Mae, Lil Cliff and the Cliffhangers, Blue Wild Angel, Who Are Those Guys, The Jim Moran Band, Bobby Nathan, Misspent Youth, and dozens more.
Additional festivities include a carnival, food vendors and an arts/crafts fair. Fireworks wrap up the weekend after the final band on Sunday evening. The East End Arts Council offers more arts events during the Blues and Music Festival, such as the Gallery's exhibition, "Water," and a talk by world-renowned sculptor Arthur Simms, Saturday from 5 to 6 pm.
The festival begins Saturday at 11 am and goes on until 11 pm; Sunday the first act begins at 11 am and the final acts will play until 9 pm. One day admission is $10 and a two-day bracelet is $15; children under 12 are free.
All proceeds benefit the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, a nonprofit arts organization presenting music and cultural events in the historic 1881 opera house in Downtown Riverhead. For more information, visit www.riverblues.org.
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