August 11th, 2014
By Times Staff
After months of planning, seven top-flight blues acts took the stage at Stage Fort Park Saturday — and more than 1,200 music fans turned out to dance, sing along or just plain sit back and enjoy the tunes at the third annual Gloucester Blues Festival.
“It was a fantastic time,” said co-promoter Bob Hastings, a blues aficionado himself and former executive director of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce. “I know I had a fantastic time myself; each band that came on, you’d wonder how the next one could possibly match or top that — and, yet, they did, all the way through.”
The festival, headlined by Ronnie Baker Brooks, was presented in conjunction with the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by a number of local businesses, with the Times as media sponsor. And Hastings said Sunday that he sees the event growing and moving forward in the future.
“I just put in a request for, Saturday, Aug. 8, of next year to Mark Cole,” Hastings said, referring to the city Public Works Departments parks and recreation coordinator. “We’ll be back — in fact, we’re already talking about who we can bring in as next year’s acts.”
