St. Louis has got the blues.
This weekend, St. Louis will host the 15th annual Big Muddy Blues Festival, an outdoor music event that attracts blues lovers from across the nation.
“We have such a huge crowd and about 35 percent of them drive or fly from out of town,’ Emily Kochan, executive producer of Big Muddy Blues Festival, said. “It’s a really down-to-earth kind of crowd. They’re here for the music.”
Located at the waterfront in Laclede’s Landing, the festival has been a popular destination for blues artists and aficionados since its first year in existence.
As the event will take place in the Landing, most of the backers are neighborhood merchants hoping to increase flow to the area.
“We are a dining and entertainment district so our merchants are made up of places from the Landing,” Kolchand said. “All of them will set up a booth outside on the street.”
John May, music coordinator for the Big Muddy Blues Festival, spends all year on the lookout for acts to fill the festival’s bill.
“I research potential headliners and communicate with the different St. Louis and East St. Louis artists,” he said. “There are 24 St. Louis acts on the bill, and that was easy to do. I could have booked 24 more if I had the space and the budget. It was an honor to have those kinds of resources to draw from.”
In booking local blues acts, May hopes to bring greater awareness of the local blues scene at large.
“I’m happy to schedule talents people may not know of from their own home town,” he said. “People may or may not be aware of all these artists, but they’re all great artists with recordings and fan bases in different circles . They represent what the St. Louis music scene has to offer.”
In addition to reaching out to local talent, May draws in artists from different areas of the U.S., each with their own cultural stamp on the music they play.
“This year’s festival has people from the north coast,” he said. “We have the people from the east coast . I try to mix that up so there’s a rhythm and blues section, a gospel section.”
Kolchan agrees that the diverse festival line-up is one of its strongest selling points.
“We’re always looking for blues artists and music that’s in that genre,” she said. “We try to make the lineup as diverse as possible . We have four stages, and it goes from one to 11, so you can walk around the festival and get a lot of different styles.”
To keep things interesting, May keeps the lineup fresh each year. While certain artists appear at the festival each year, 25 percent to 35 percent of the acts are new to the festival.
When looking for acts, May favors originality.
“I want to have someone who’s truly creative instead of regurgitating what’s already been done,” he said. “When you have artists who are working and dedicating their lives to the music, they’re there to play and make a mark on the people listening.”
Though the use of piano in blues music is personally appealing to May, he’s hard pressed to pick a highlight of the weekend.
“I think they’re all very good, otherwise they wouldn’t be involved or even considered,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest draw for students to the festival is the price.
“The festival has been free for its entire life span,” Kolchan said. “It’s a really diverse group of people because it’s free . It’s a good mix.”
The Casino Queen will offer a free shuttle service to and from the event.
Running Saturday and Sunday, the festival is St. Louis’ only blues music festival.
For more information about the Big Muddy Blues Festival, including a full schedule of the acts booked to perform each day, visit www.lacledeslanding.com/events.html.
