The 29th annual Long Beach Blues Festival is set for Saturday-Sunday, August 30th-31st and will take place at a new location, Rainbow Lagoon. The bill for the famous Southern California event will feature Chuck Berry, Sly & the Family Stone, Booker T Jones, John Mayall, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Pinetop Perkins, and many more.

The Festival will relocate from its longtime home site at the Cal State University Long Beach (CSULB) athletic field to a breezy new oceanfront home, the Rainbow Lagoon at Linden Avenue and Shoreline Drive, adjacent to the Long Beach Marina. The Festival also has two new co-producers: Bill Silva Presents and Rum & Humble. Executive producers are Global Jazz, Inc. and CSULB.

Other players will include Northern Californian slide-slinger Roy Rogers, Jamaican soul vocalist Roy Young, harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, classic blues man Joe Louis Walker, rising guitar star Ana Popovic, and newbies Baby Stone.

In the past three decades, the Long Beach Blues Festival has become one of the nation’s pre-eminent blues celebrations. As a major fundraiser for publicly supported radio station KKJZ-FM, the Festival serves not only as an annual weekend devoted to a classic American music form, but also to help sustain both jazz and the blues on the air all year long.

KKJZ-FM (previously known as KLON-FM) has been broadcasting jazz and blues since 1981. In December 2004, the station increased transmitting power, going from 6,500 to 30,000 watts, as well as an HD Radio digital signal at 88.1 FM.

Advance tickets are available in June for $45 (plus applicable service charges) for a single day, or $75 (plus applicable service charges) for a weekend pass via Ticketmaster. Day of show prices are $50 for one day and $85 for the weekend. In addition, the Festival offers several VIP package rates, all of which include a donation to benefit KJAZZ: The Buddy Pack (two VIP weekend passes plus parking and beverages) for $300 and the Platinum Pass (two VIP weekend passes plus VIP parking, food and beverages) for $800. Also offered are the Backstage Pass (two backstage weekend passes plus VIP parking, food and beverages) at $1,650 and the Ultimate Backstage Pass (two backstage weekend passes and a reserved seating area plus VIP parking, food, beverages, and hotel or transportation) at $5,000.

Enhanced VIP ticket packages are available directly from KKJZ-FM 88.1 FMKJAZZ by calling (310) 478-5061 or online at http://www.jazzandblues.org/longbeachbluesfestival.

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