Tom Loghrin has been to the Thunder Bay Blues Festival every year since it began.
It’s a summer staple he said on Friday, wandering the growing crowd pouring into Marina Park as Montreal’s Paul Deslauriers Band finished a riveting, soulful set that primed the crowd for the likes of Alan Frew and Johnny Reid to come.
“It’s community. We’ve got our own little crowd over here. We see everybody year after year and it’s great music. You can’t beat that,” he said, eagerly awaiting Saturday’s arrival of Kenny Wayne Shepherd and anything that’s “heavy-duty blues.”
Tisha Koval was making her first appearance at the festival.
“This is great,” she said, pointing to the natural surroundings on the shores of Lake Superior as just one reason why she’s already fallen in love with the event, now in its 14th year.
Though she came mainly to see Reid, there was plenty of other acts on the lineup that initially caught her attention, including Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle, the penultimate Saturday act.
“There are lots to pick from each day,” she said.
Nothing was going to top Reid in her mind.
“I’ve heard from nieces who have been to his concerts that he’s a good performer. He’s very good,” said Koval, who journeyed to the Blues Festival with her two sisters.
Ryan Allison has been in Thunder Bay for 30 years and he finally decided to take the plunge. He’s usually off fishing with friends, but weather put a stop to that in 2015, so he thought he’d see what the festival fuss was all about.
He wasn’t disappointed.
“Today is just incredible,” he said. “My friends came to see Johnny Reid. We bought tickets in March and we’ve been waiting ever since. I’ll always be back now for every one of them. It’s just fantastic.”
The three-day festival kicked off during the supper hour, when local favourites The Boardroom Gypsies took to the stage.
For saxophonist and well-known restaurateur Bob Stewart, it was a dream come true, something he’s wanted to do since the event began in 2001.
“It was an awesome stage to play and it exceeded expectations,” Stewart said.
“We wanted to entertain the crowd, but we also wanted to feel that feeling of being up on that big stage with that big sound system. It was just incredible.”
The music continues on Saturday at noon with Thunder Bay’s Loose Cannon opening things up at noon. Also on the bill are Blues Fest staples The Groove Merchants, The Brandon Niederauer Band, Brother Yusef, Kelly Richey, the Walkervilles, Doyle and Shepherd, who closes out the night with a 9:30 p.m. performance.
