The Riverhead Blues Festival is making a comeback.
The festival will return as three weekends of blues — plus documentary films and talks about the history of blues with music historian and award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Lauro (“Fats Domino and The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll”) — at the Vail Leavitt Music Hall beginning Sept. 16.
Performances by a full card of blues musicians — see below — will take place on three consecutive Friday and Saturday evenings: Sept. 16-17, Sept. 23-24 and Sept. 30-Oct 1. Documentary films about blues will be shown on the afternoons of Sunday, Sept. 18, Sept. 25 and Oct. 3, with Lauro leading audience discussion about the history of blues and notable blues musicians.
“There will be an opportunity for people to interact with him in a question-and-answer session,” said Vail-Leavitt treasurer Angela DeVito.
Doors will open on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. and on Sundays at 2, she said.
Individual tickets cost $40 per evening. A five-performance pack is $35 per ticket and tickets for all six evenings cost $30 per performance.
Tickets for the film/discussion are $15 each.
The program is made possible in part with the support of a $5,000 grant from Suffolk County, which DeVito thanked County Legislator Al Krupski for assisting the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in obtaining.
The historic music hall has 220 seats and the council expects a sellout, she said. Tickets will be available online soon.
Photo: Phil Gatz
The Riverhead Blues Festival was a popular long-running outdoor festival held on the Peconic Riverfront. Initially presented by the Riverhead Business Improvement District, the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall took over production in 2006, after the BID Management Association withdrew. The festival was last produced on the riverfront in 2012.
The downtown business district can no longer spare the parking that would be lost to the festival if it were held in its prior location, so the Vail-Leavitt board decided to bring the event indoors, DeVito said today.
Downtown restaurant owners and merchants have complained about a shortage of parking and raised objections to outdoor special events being held in the riverfront parking lot.
“The Vail’s historic theater is a great performance venue and we look forward to exposing it to a wider audience,” DeVito said.
Photo: Bill Steber/Courtesy of Jerron Paxton
Riverhead Blues Festival 2016: Key Performances
Friday, Sept. 16 – Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton
Saturday, Sept. 17 – Rob Europe / Andy Aledort & the Groove Kings
Sunday,Sept. 18 – Historic films presented by Joe Lauro
Friday, Sept. 23 – Four O’Clock Flowers / TBA
Saturday, Sept. 24 – New River Northeast All-Stars / LI Blues Society IBC challenge – band winner
Sunday, Sept. 25 – Historic films presented by Joe Lauro
Friday, Sept. 30 – Bruce MacDonald / Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur
Saturday, Oct. 1 – LI Blues Society IBC challenge – solo-duo winner / Robert Ross’ Jazz-Ma
Sunday, Oct. 2 – Terry Waldo
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