News Release

What makes the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival so special?                                          

The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is an anomaly in the festival world. There is no other festival like it anywhere!

• It has enjoyed phenomenal success.

• It is operated by a charitable, nonprofit organization – Oregon Food Bank – and run with the help of thousands of volunteers.

• It couldn’t happen any place else in the world … a fabulous setting, on the grassy banks of the Willamette River with the Portland skyline as a backdrop.

• It has a global reputation in the music world as the best-run festival bar none.

• It’s grown from a small, modest, one-day festival to the largest blues festival
  west of the Mississippi and the second largest in the nation, stretching
  over five days with 120 plus world-class performances, five stages, five DME Blues Cruises.

• It’s a gift to the community, the best entertainment bargain in town. Admission isn’t an extravagant, high-priced ticket.  It’s a suggested donation of $10 per person and two cans of food per person, per day.

• Every donation – every penny and every pound of food – goes directly to help fight hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry. During the past 20 years, the festival has raised 1.25-million pounds of food and nearly $3.5-million to help people in need throughout Oregon and Clark County.

• This is a festival with depth – workshops, interviews and music demonstrations teach people about America’s original contribution to music.

• It’s a community tradition – people return year-after-year because they had a good time. It’s a place to volunteer … a place to fight hunger … to stretch out on a blanket and bask in the sun on the banks of the beautiful Willamette … to enjoy music that tells the story of human struggles and celebrates life … and to build a caring community that helps those in need. Many festival-goers tell us it’s the highlight of the year. Couples honeymoon at the festival, get married at the festival.

• It’s a place to bring the whole family – with fireworks, youth performances and workshops for children. Families spread out their blankets. Children take their first step, dance their first dance.

• It’s been hailed as “the crown jewel” of blues festivals, and we think it is.

About Oregon Food Bank: Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit, charitable organization. It is the hub of the Oregon Food Bank Network, a statewide network of 20 regional food banks and 919 hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

About festival sponsors: The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union. Major sponsors include FedEx Freight, PacificSource Health Plans, iQ Credit Union, Daimler Truck Financial, Land Rover, The Oregonian A&E, KINK.fm and Travel Portland. Supporting sponsors include Burt’s Bees, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Miller Brewing Co., Henry Weinhard's, Deschutes Brewery, Beringer Wine, Snapple, Pepsi, Nutrisoda, Earth2o Water, Frito Lay Snacks, Yoshida Sauce, Mission Foods, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, NW Natural, FedEx Kinko’s, Impact Advertising, Edge Design, The Boeing Company, PGE, KBOO, OregonLive.com, Blues Revue, Music Millennium, Karolyn March, Guitar Center, Lions Foundation, Cascade Blues Association, Oregon Potters Association, Cascade Zydeco and Delta Music Experience.