Festival ready to give Long Beach the blues

"This is going to be the biggest one yet," said Gary Chiachi, producer of the 21st annual Long Beach Blues Festival, about this year's festival.

The three-day festival put on by KLON is scheduled to take place on the North Athletic Field this weekend and will feature live blues and soul bands, radio celebrities and vendors.

"What we're doing in this particular festival is expanding but still keep it blues rooted," Chiachi said.

"We've got a couple of additional things this year like a couple of blues rocker like the Allman Brothers Band and George Thorogood."

Soul artists Bobby Womack and Charles Wright will also help diversify the line-up, in addition to blues legends Bo Diddley and Etta James, who are among the more anticipated performers.

"We're excited about the Allman Brothers since they're a major band touring music today," Chiachi said.

To prevent a shutdown of the festival, which occurred on the second day of last year's festival, "the field has been reconfigured," Chiachi said.

"We've moved stuff back, got less vendors, basically moved things around to adjust the logistics of the layout."

About 13 to 14,000 were there on Saturday last year and 5,000 extra on Sunday, which caused last year's shutdown, he said.

However, any of the three days could be equally as big according to Chiachi.

"The soul Sunday is the biggest one and usually the most popular, but the Monday aspect with the Allman Brothers will be a big thing.

"Any of the days could be a sellout," he said. "We're expecting 15 to 18,000 people a day" this year.

Festival participants will be able to visit "around 25 different food, clothes and merchandise booths." There will be "a wide variety of foods and beverages, including beer and wine available at the festival."

Gates are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. and music will begin at 11 a.m., and end at 6 p.m. each day.

The KLON box office is closed but tickets are available through ticket outlets.