JUNE 14-19
Bentonia: Bentonia Blues Festival, Blue Front Café, 107 E. Railroad Ave. Juke begins at 6 pm each evening, then all day Saturday. Food and merchandise vendors, RV and tent camping (fees apply), live music. See visityazoo.org/bentonia-blues-
Bentonia Blues Festival 2021
June 14-19, 2021
Blue Front Cafe
107 E Railroad Avenue, Bentonia, Mississippi
Juke starts at 6 pm each evening
Stay up-to-date with the latest announcements! “Like” the Bentonia Blues Festival page on Facebook!
The 2021 Bentonia Blues Festival will take place all day Saturday, June 19, at the historic Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi off Highway 49 North. The event will feature food and merchandise vendors, RV, and tent camping (fees apply), live music, and more. The Bentonia Blues Festival is a unique down-home style festival that runs on juke joint time just like the historic and authentic oldest juke joint in daily operation, the Blue Front Cafe… In other words, times and order of performances are bound to change a bit. Relax and have a great time with us as we help to keep the Bentonia blues alive!
Bentonia Blues Festival 2021 Line-up
The 49th-anniversary Bentonia Blues Festival (2021) Line-Up
(Be sure to check Blue Front Cafe page on Facebook for updates.)
A list of artist that will be playing at the Bentonia Blues Festival June 14-19,2021
*Monday June 14th
Opening act for the week
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Arion baby Bell
Others
*Tuesday June 15th
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Red Meat Rhetoric
Others
*Wednesday June 16th
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Jesse Cotton Stone
Mississippi Marshall
McKinney Bluesman Williams
*Thursday June 17th
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Little Joe Ayers
Ryan Lee Crosby
Chris Gill
Ghalia Volt
* Friday June 18th
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Groove Johnson
Nick Wade
19th street Red
Lightnin Malcom
RLBoyce
*Saturday June 19th
Nick Wade
Ryan Lee Crosby
Deak Harp
Lightnin Malcom
RL Boyce
Jimmy Duck Holmes
Roosevelt Roberts
Pleshette Howard
About the Bentonia Blues Festival
The Bentonia Blues Festival began in 1972 on a farm just up the road from the world-famous Blue Front Cafe on land owned by the Holmes family. It was a tiny event, with only one D.J. and Walter “Big Daddy” Hood (“500 lbs. of Blues”) performing a capella. The location of the festival was moved into downtown Bentonia, Mississippi in 2006. Since that time, the festival has grown from an attendance of a couple hundred to ten thousand in recent years, prompting the festival to be moved back to the original location on the Holmes farm from time to time. The festival has attracted blues performers and fans from far and wide.
“When I started this festival in 1972, it was to help preserve the Bentonia style of blues, which is unique to this area. I knew then that it would be a great event, but I never knew it would be as big as it is now,” says Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, owner of the Blue Front Cafe and creator of the Bentonia Blues Festival. “The fact that so many people have become aware of this music and want to celebrate it every year with us here in Bentonia really warms my heart. Every year we have people here from a different country or state that’s never been before. The Bentonia blues is still alive, and it’s right here.”
The 2019 Bentonia Blues Festival is scheduled annually for the 3rd Saturday in June with live music starting the Monday before and continuing every evening at the historic Blue Front Cafe. Saturday’s festival is an all-day event some years held back on the Holmes’ Farm at 313 Wilson-Holmes Road, Bentonia, MS.