Riverfront festival rounds out 20 years of the blues

Had he moved to town one year sooner, there's a good chance Ray Devault would have attended every Riverfront Blues Festival in Wilmington. 

This weekend marked 19 years of perfect attendance for Devault, and on Sunday he was in his element. Asked why he keeps coming back, the answer was easy. 

"The people, who are very friendly. The police, who love it because it's never any trouble. And the music, terrific. Nice locale," Devault said. 

The 20th Annual Riverfront Blues Festival reigned over Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park for three days, inviting locals and travelers alike to show up, spread out, dance, sing, eat and drink all to the backdrop of national and local acts appearing on its stages. 

The festival has drawn between 10-11,000 people in recent years, according to Shefon Taylor, with marketing and special projects in the mayor’s office of cultural affairs. This year, she said, total attendance likely was about the same. 

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“The thing that I love most is just watching people come have a great time here in the city,” Taylor said. “We get caught up in a lot of the other news about what happens here in the city of Wilmington, and this is such a wonderful opportunity to sit back and watch people come and enjoy themselves. They dance, they laugh, they eat, they drink a little. It’s just a great display of community and fun and laughter.”

The Deb Callahan Band out of Philadelphia opened the festival Friday with a 5 p.m. show, the first of 17 bands to go on throughout the weekend. 

“It’s all about keeping this great music alive, called the blues. It’s a music that brings all types of cultures together," said Gene Fontana, festival coordinator and president of Diamond State Blues Society. “This draws all kinds of people from all across the world, all across the country.”

That included local acts such as Dr. Harmonica & Rockett 88 and Barrelhouse, who played Friday and Saturday, respectively. Dawn Tyler Watson, the winner of this year's International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, came down from Canada with her band and kicked off Sunday morning with soul. 

“Everybody loves this festival. This is one of their favorite festivals in the summertime,” Fontana said. "But the blues festival being a multi-day festival the way it is, people come here, they stay at the hotels and they spend money. That’s the No. 1 thing, bringing that revenue here to the state of Delaware.”

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This weekend was the third time Barry Leech and his wife have come up from Baltimore to get their blues fix. 

"It's a nice festival, it really is. And for the people that they have, it's close, too," Leech said. "It's a lot closer than some of the other festivals that we go to." 

But Rick Betz hasn't cooked for the blues festival in any of the past four years — "in a word, I was boycotting because I did not like the way the other administration was handling things and people." 

The longtime Wilmington barbecuer was back this weekend, though, and he was happy once again to be one of the dozen or so vendors to set up shop at the festival. 

"It's been absolutely wonderful. It's like a homecoming. I didn't realize how many friends I actually had and how many I hadn't seen in a long time," Betz said.

He said business was slower than he remembered, and blamed that in part to the changeover in city administrations affecting the festival planning. 

"It had effects, but the enthusiasm wasn't dimmed among the festival-goers," Betz said. "Blues is a funny thing. People come here for one reason — the camaraderie and the music."

Contact Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2785.