Springing the Blues Festival

It's my favorite festival of the year. I love the Blues and was so thankful that the weather cooperated.Friday night Smoke Stack did not disappoint! My schedule unfortunately did not allow for Saturday or Sunday attendance.Two things: If you never been to Springin the Blues - GOIf you never have experienced Smoke Stack - you must

So fun! Live music is always the best!And seeing new friends and old faces is always a bonus. If you can bike there, I'd suggest doing so. Because parking always gets tricky with festivals. Love that Beach life. Thanks for all the talents that came out to perform!

My first year at the festival. The music is awesome. Parking was very hard to find. We did find a lot for $15 per car. There are a lot of food trucks with great food. I got a gyro from a food truck which was great, nice crowd here. It's a plus if you bring your own lawn chair.

Always a favorite beach festival with amazing artists, music, food and fun for the kids. Even the rain didn't keep us away this year!

A co-worker invited me to check out Jacksonville's annual Blues festival at the beach. Attracting a very diverse cross section of the city's population, thousands of people were casually dressed enjoying the bands on the main and side stages, shopping at the vendor tables and eating a variety of local and regional cuisine from the many food booths. Music and excitement filled the air amid the waves of palm trees and cigarette smoke. Like any event at the beach, definitely since it was a free event, parking was limited and traffic was heavy. But the sounds of the blues ironically kept the crowd happy and engaged - singing, dancing and laughing.

If you like anything at all -- anything in the entire wide world --you'd like this.This free event begins on Friday evening and runs until late Sunday night. I think I saw about 10% of all the shows, even though I was there every day. There's so much to do: Kids area, food court, THE BEACH, market place, nearby restaurants. On day 1 I was by myself and was able to hear the opening act and the one after that. Great performances. Day 2 I got there early with my family, set up a chair directly behind the VIP area and was treated to more great music for the rest of the day. I forgot all about the second stage until around 2pm, moseyed over there and was treated to a more intimate yet rocking vibe. (Next year I'm going to divide my time between the two stages better) My wife and son enjoyed time on the beach (I'd head over there with them during intermissions), and the kids area. Everyone was entertained for the entire day. Day 3 I decided to not only bring my family but also some friends who were visiting from out of town. We ate in the food court (prices ranged from "reasonable" to "no way I'm paying that much when I can just go to a restaurant over there and pay the same thing"), watched some blues, then headed to the beach. After that we took a walk to an ice cream parlor nearby. I'm telling you, this was just a wonderful way to spend a precious day of your life. I wish I could give this event 6 stars -- 7 even! Parking ranged from free (gotta get there like 1-2 hours early) to $20. I was impressed by how not crowded it felt, despite so many people being there. None of the lines were long and there was plenty of space to move around.

For someone that's a native, I have a funny way of avoiding events until it's a big anniversary. I did it with the 40th anniversary of TPC. And now the 25th anniversary of Springing the Blues. We had headed up to Blind Rabbit to grab a burger - thankfully before the crowd rush - and completely forgot the blues festival was going down. Since we had already found a parking spot we decided to hang out for a bit and check out who was jamming out on stage. I don't recall the name of the band, but they are frequent festival participants from Louisiana bringing their zydeco funk to the beaches of Jacksonville. The crowd was definitely enjoying it as their was much dancing in the aisles. And no knocks against the band - they were great - but after several songs it all starts to sound similar. At least to me. I'll definitely have to keep an eye on this one when it rolls around next year.