Blues Festival Returns to Eau Claire
Ann Barsness
Leader-Telegram Staff

After a one-year break, the Coalition Blues Festival is back on tap for this fall — bringing a slate of regional bands to Owen Park on Saturday, Sept. 16, featuring the headlining Lucy Creek Blues Band.

The lineup includes the following.

10:30 a.m. — Sparky & The Wipers.

Noon — Poppy & The Confluence.

1 p.m. — Mojo Terry & The Boilermakers.

2:30 p.m. — Howard Luedtke & Blue Max.

4 p.m. — Skeeter Lewis & The Roger Ellis Project.

5:30 p.m. — Lucy Creek Blues Band.

The Lucy Creek Blues Band is tenor saxophonist Sue Orfield, percussionist John LeBrun, guitarist and vocalist Kevin Hardage and bassist and vocalist Pete Roller. The band, which performs regularly in Eau Claire, released its first compact disc, “Public Rehearsal,” in 2005.

The third daylong concert is sponsored by the Neighborhood Association Coalition. Admission is free; proceeds from T-shirt sales and poster prints benefit the association. (The original poster image by colored pencil artist Allan Servos, pictured at left, also will be featured on T-shirts.)

“We’ve kind of given up trying to borrow and steal money from people. That’s why we didn’t do it last year,” said Ken Fulgione, an Eau Claire Realtor who is helping to organize the event and is one of the festival’s major sponsors.

He said donations have covered the $3,000 cost of hiring musicians and renting a sound system. The total festival cost runs about $4,000.

“This year I’m expecting a pretty good turnout because we’ve purposely scheduled it with the International Fall Festival,” Fulgione said of the Eau Claire event planned for the same day.

He estimated past Coalition Blues festivals drew between 3,000 and 4,000 people.

“My hope is that by next year we will be able to begin expanding the bands beyond the current regional nature,” Fulgione said in a follow-up e-mail. “We have great local blues bands in the Chippewa Valley, but we would like to bring in the flavor of Chicago or even the Delta if we are successful in bringing in two new sponsors for next year.”

This year, Famous Dave’s will be among the vendors at the alcohol-free event.

Festival organizers are still seeking volunteers; for more information, e-mail Fulgione at ken@fulgione.net or call 577-4197.

Barsness can be reached at 833-9214.