The Red, White and Blues Festival brought some red-hot tunes and a huge crowd to the Regional Park Amphitheater on Wednesday.
The music matched the weather, which at one point rose to triple digits but cooled down thanks to a brief thunderstorm. A precursor to the Fourth of July fireworks display, the live show featured three blues bands and helped support a local charity.
Patricia Goodman, who said she was looking forward to hearing some good music, staked out a seat early.
“We just come out here every year and listen to the blues,” she said.
Shirley Harrison said she and her husband, Sonny, came out to support their nephew Brian Austin’s band. Austin, from Pine Bluff, had Vertie and Frank Henslee swaying in their seats. The band blended vocals, guitars and harmonica as they performed such songs as “Baby What You Want Me to Do?” and “The Sky is Crying.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“They’re very good,” Vertie Henslee said. “We’re enjoying it.”
The group spurred Geraldine Thornton to get up and dance.
“I’m enjoying this,” she said. “I’m here every year that I can get here. It’s very nice.”
“He’s wonderful,” Pat Hopkins said. “I follow (Austin) and I love to see what he does to the crowd. He gets people up and dancing.”
Austin’s band was followed by The Saints of Yesterday of Pine Bluff and Hadden Sayers of Houston Texas.
The Pine Bluff Festival Association teamed up with the Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Department to put on the festival, according to Greg Gustek, director of the festival association. He said he is thankful for the numerous sponsors of the fireworks display, which is the largest in Southeast Arkansas.
The musical performances helped support a good cause, he added,
“This year we teamed up with Blues for a Cause – a nonprofit organization that raises funds to help cancer patients (and other with catastrophic illnesses) who don’t have insurance or don’t have enough insurance,” Gustek said, explaining that money from beverage sales go to the charity.
Blues for a Cause was established in Pine Bluff after Joe Powell held a fundraiser for a friend who had been hospitalized.
“We did our first show in March of last year,” Powell said. “A friend of mine had lung cancer and didn’t have insurance.”
Powell and his wife, Tracey, are avid blues fans and often volunteer at festivals across Arkansas. Powell said he’s glad that he can help those in need by doing something that he loves.
“It’s a good thing to be able to help people,” said Powell, who once faced a possible cancer diagnosis himself but said he was miraculously healed. “That man upstairs kept me around to help somebody.”
Powell said some of the funds raised at Wednesday’s event will support the family of the late blues musician Michael Burke.
In addition to live music, Wednesday’s event featured food vendors who sold barbecue, turkey legs, nachos, hot dogs, snow cones and more. Grand Prairie Animal Rescue of Stuttgart was also on hand with animals that are ready for adoption. Linda Bankston, store manager at Petsense in Pine Bluff, brought samples of dog and cat food that pet owners could pick up. Those who decided to adopt a pet during the month of July could also receive a free 8 by 10 photo and a free bath for a pet from Petsense.