Greenbelt Blues Festival attendees danced, lounged and mingled as multiple acts played the blues throughout a sunny Saturday in Roosevelt Center. This year the 17th annual Greenbelt Blues Festival scored a national act for the first time: Eli Cook, a blues singer. According to his Wikipedia page, Cook once opened for B.B. King and appeared on the cover of Blues Matter! Magazine.
“It was a very down-home vibe,” Cook said following his set. “It wasn’t too big and corporate like some large festivals, but it was still a party.” The Virginian native headed home to Charlottesville, but after dark the festivities continued on in the New Deal Café, where The Smokin’ Polecats with Marianna Previti closed out the night.
New Deal Café sponsors the event along with Friends of New Deal Café Arts. Tom LeaMond, who serves on the New Deal Café’s board of directors, said the festival experiences growth every year. “Every time we bring someone into Roosevelt Center for the first time, they see that there is something here for them and come back,” LeaMond said.
Local music impresario Jazs, who describes herself as the founder of the organization Blues in Maryland, said that there were likely between 400 and 500 people who attended throughout the event. Jazs coordinates blues festivals throughout the area and serves as the advertising executive of the DC Blues Society.
Among those attendees was Tommy Jay, who said he has seldom missed a Greenbelt Blues Festival. “It’s always awesome,” Jay said. Jazs said that this year’s festival had a special vibe. “This year is our hippie, dippy, trippy blues festival,” Jazs said. “It’s just got that atmosphere, that ambiance, that feel.”
The festival was not limited to performances. The morning began with a blues yoga class by instructor Tina McCloud of Got Yoga, and then representatives from the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation taught blues music workshops. Vendors, including a fairy hair booth, populated the Roosevelt Center.
Other festival acts included Dar Stellabotta, Ruben Montoya, Capital Blues Ensemble, Shirleta Settles, Kevin Robinson & KERQ, The Mike Westcott Band and Moonshine Society, who kicked off the festival on Friday night in New Deal Café.
Fans of the blues can catch more events by Blues in Maryland in Washington and College Park in October and November, respectively. Silver Spring had its blues festival in June.