Join us at next year's festival
July 2-5, 2009

Waterfront Blues Festival named Event of the Year
The Cascade Blues Association named The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival Northwest Event of the Year at its meeting in November.

Measure 64 defeated
Thanks to your support and votes, Measure 64, a measure that may have put the Waterfront Blues Festival at risk, was defeated. Plans continue for the 22nd Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, July 2 through 5, 2009.

Oregon Food Bank thanks community for successful 2008 Waterfront Blues Festival

PORTLAND, Ore. (July 8, 2008) – Perfect festival weather, great music, enthusiastic volunteers, committed sponsors and generous blues fans helped make the 21st annual Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union, a rousing success.

Blues fans donated $538,000 at the gate, making the 2008 Waterfront Blues Festival the second highest for gate donations in the festival’s 21-year history. In addition, blues fans donated an estimated 91,192 pounds of food.  Read more >

Share your favorite blues story from the 2008 festival

Music world loses soul icon Isaac Hayes 
2008 Waterfront Blues Festival headliner

PORTLAND, Ore. (Aug. 11, 2008) – Soul icon Isaac Hayes, 65, died Aug. 10, 2008.

Hayes headlined opening night of the 2008 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, one of the last performances of his career, less than six weeks prior to his death.

"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, said. "When you think of soul music, you think of Isaac Hayes -- the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."

Stax Records hired Hayes in 1964. He was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

NEW: Blues Blog takes you behind the scenes

Peter Dammann, Waterfront Blues Festival's multi-talented talent coordinator, takes you behind the scenes for an insiders' view of the festival. Recent posts include: "Classie Ballou: When lightning strikes, he's there," Carolyn Wonderland: Texistenial Wonder," "James Hunter," "Hey, Bo Diddley (has left the building) and more.  Read the blog >