Here in the States, summer is defined by two national holidays. Between the last weekend of May and Memorial Day to the first Monday of September with its Labor Day observance is when Americans know that is time to go to the beach, moisturize and grill meat outside. 

I more or less respect these traditions, but I always use the weekend before Memorial Day and the Doheny Blues Festival and the San Diego Blues Festival on the second weekend of September as my summer bookends. I suggest you try it as well. The advantages are obvious, as you get two extra weeks of summer. Additionally, as if that weren’t enough, you get to travel to two of the great destinations on the west coast and you also get to celebrate America’s greatest cultural gift to the world, the blues, while you’re there.

Saturday, September 8th, marks this year’s date for the San Diego Blues Festival.  Not only is there another great line-up put together by festival producer Michael Kinsman, but attendees get to do something else, that may or not be fashionable, depending on your political points of view and that is, help your fellow man.

The Cause

Once again, the benefactors of this wonderful event are the good folks at the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank. The Food Bank distributed more than 22 million pounds of food through 346 community organizations (social service agencies, churches, senior centers, military agencies) in 2017. About one-third of that was fresh produce.

Each month, the Food Bank provides service to 370,000 food-insecure people in San Diego County.  That includes 1,600 low-income kids at elementary schools who get a backpack of food each weekend.

It also includes a box of food to 8,400 low-income seniors each month. Additionally, the San Diego Food Bank serves 28,000 military families and dependents each year.

This festival, now in its seventh year, has raised $585,000 for the Food Bank. It has also collected 24,000 pounds of food at the event. It has been an honor and a privilege for BLUES JUNCTION Productions to be associated with this annual event.

The Line-Up

Click here for the complete line-up and artist bios.

The Venue

The entire event is held at the Embarcadero Marina Park North on the downtown waterfront. It is a delightful park which is nestled between a small yacht harbor and the San Diego Bay. It is also adjacent to the Shoreline Village shopping and dining area as well as several first-rate hotels. With the bay, the downtown skyline and the Coronado Bridge as a backdrop a more scenic venue is hard to imagine. This combined with San Diego’s perpetually agreeable climate makes for a wonderful festival experience.

As an added bonus, Charlie Lange and his Bluebeat Music, traveling, retail CD store will be there as well. If any of our readers would like to come by and say hello, there is always a pretty good chance that I’ll be hanging out at Charlie’s booth at some point in the afternoon.

I look forward to reuniting with my San Diego Blues family at the 2018 edition of the San Diego Blues Festival. Here is a link for detailed information and tickets.

- David Mac