Attendance soars for sunny and soulful Blues Fest

With sunny skies overhead and crowds moving their feet on the dancefloor, guests had nothing to feel blue about at the 16th annual Blues Fest.

The summer music festival organized by the St. Peter Ambassadors at Minnesota Square Park on Saturday witnessed high levels of attendance. While exact attendance isn’t recorded since the event is free, organizers estimated around 5,000 people crowded into the festival throughout the afternoon and evening hours.

“It’s up there as one of our best years,” said Ambassadors representative David Detlefson. “The weather was just perfect and the bands were great.”

While the free music showcase brought in thousands from St. Peter and the surrounding area, Blues Fest also drew a fair amount of out-of-state visitors to the community.

“Quite a few of them are coming from out of state and are making it an annual thing,” said Detlefson. “There was one couple who came from Sioux Falls — this was their ninth year coming. The first time they came was just by driving by and they saw a band going on and they stopped to check it out. It usually falls right around their anniversary so that’s their anniversary trip to St. Peter and watch the blues. We keep getting more and more people from out of town and surrounding areas.”

The community concert series had a solid lineup of artists which made the event worth the trip. The festival opened with Mankato blues-rock band 326 Madison, followed by southeastern Minnesota blues rockers The Gopher Tones, the soulful sounds of Destini Rawls accompanied by a feature performance from her father and famed soul-blues musician Johnny Rawls, Twin Cities blues rock mainstays The Butanes and headliner Mark Joseph and the American Soul with the Northside Horns.

The clear weather — a welcome sight after rains came for last year’s Blues Fest — and rocking sounds had dozens of people dancing in front of the Minnesota Square Park Pavilion while thousands more watched from their lawn chairs and picnic blankets spread throughout the park.

In addition to large crowds, the 16th annual Blues Fest boasted a record-breaking 24 merchandise vendors alongside plenty of food trucks for visitors to enjoy.

“It’s made possible by our sponsors, it’s made possible by the community that supports the event and supports the Ambassadors and our other events throughout the year and the Ambassadors themselves that volunteer their time throughout the weekend for this event as well as other events throughout the year,” said Detlefson. “It really takes our whole team to put these events on and we enjoy doing it because it really puts St. Peter on the map.”