Hanging out with Blues Rock Super Stars!

BB King & Peter Noble at Bluesfest 2011

Greetings, Firstly - thank you to everyone for sending in their Bluesfest reviews. We have chosen 4 different ones for this Blues news and we hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did. If you are not reading your own review, you may be spotting yourself in one of the pictures we have published in this news.

The main factor is - there would not be a Bluesfest without any of you and a big THANK YOU goes to you all for your ongoing support.

For those of you who haven't managed to get your tickets yet - we are excited to say that the Pre Early Bird Tickets are still available to purchase along with the Time to Pay option, so get in quick to secure your discounted tickets!

We hope you will enjoy the 2nd edition of Blues News, where our Festival Director Peter Noble gives us a glimpse behind the scenes and is inviting you to email him the TOP 10 artists you would like to see in 2012.

There are some amazing prizes to be won, so please read on for more information.

Behind the scenes with Peter Noble - Festival Director.

BB King & Peter Noble at Bluesfest 2011

During Bluesfest: As much as I would like to say I get to hang out with the mega famous artists Bluesfest presents, the truth is a little different, although there are the perks. Every day & night of the Festival there are a whole bunch of questions directed at our management staff and myself.

They range from dealing with issues such as traffic management, parking, camping, serving beer at the right temperature, making sure the right equipment is on stage for each and every particular artist (and that it's working), feeding crew and musicians backstage, getting artists from their hotels (and of course aeroplanes) on time, overseeing that stalls are working properly and enough food is supplied to 20,000 people daily without a risk of running out mid way through.

I could go on and on, but somewhere within that I get to ponce around as Festival director (and enjoying myself immensely) while dealing with any issues my wonderful & hard working team of management has brought to my attention.

The Backstage area & Food stalls:

Artists and their management who come to Bluesfest regularly tell us that we are operating at world's best standards in our facilities provided and we all take immense pride in presenting our individual areas to the best of our abilities.

The big distinction between Bluesfest and some other Festivals is that the catering backstage compares to restaurant standard.

Our backstage area has a green room where artists can both eat and hang out. In addition every band/artist have their own dressing room, where they can spend quality time before or after their show.

OUR rule is that we treat all bands with the same respect, from the small to the big bands. They have equal access to backstage catering and quality sound equipment.

Of course the bigger bands may get a quality bottle of liquor (or two) in their dressing room above opening artists - but in the end that is about it - and we get loads of emails from band's who played earlier times on smaller stages saying thank you for how well they were treated in every way.

Those special 2011 artist moments:

I enjoyed a brilliant dinner in Singapore with Michael Franti & Spearhead before our Singapore (Timbre) Rock n Roots Festival. The stories that got swapped around the table about one George Clinton are unprintable - however, let me just say - he is even more out there than I could have imagined.

It was very special to spend a few minutes with BB King - he is truly regal and I still treasure the picture he signed for me way back in 1978, where he wrote: "'Stay With IT!" - Yes BB, I have - and I think I have done, and am still doing The Blues proud.

And how about this one?

Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top gave me his wacky business card, as well as a message for BB King, who was playing the next night. The message was: "BB - I done good - just like you said I would". What a truly nice guy, respectful, a man who loves the Blues, and who really in my opinion did a GREAT show, much better than the first time they came to Bluesfest.

I will also not forget hanging out with artists such as Ben Harper, who is becoming an old friend, and getting "The Innocent Criminals" back together for their first show in around 3 years. Ben continues to give ultimate respect to Bluesfest.

Grace Jones was, well interesting, and quite androgynous when you get close to her. I am still scratching my head on quite a few things about her performance.

I could continue endlessly talking about the artists who graced us with their presence this year, but it is time to look ahead and start talking about Bluesfest 2012.

With this in mind I would like to invite you to take part in our following competition:

Top 10 Bluesfest 2012 Artists -exclusive competition.

Please list your Top Ten artists you would like to see play Bluesfest 2012 and send to admin@bluesfest.com.au. They can be Aussie or International, but make sure their genre is one of the following: Blues / Roots / Alternative / Country / Funk / Singer Songwriter / Folk / Americana / Gospel / Reggae / World.

It's fine to choose obscure and esoteric artists; in fact that is what we would really like you to do.

If you fill the above criteria (sorry, we don't accept any heavy metal artists....) and are a Bluesfest 2012 ticket holder you will go into the draw to win one of the following prizes:

1st prize: Daily Backstage experience for you and a partner. Go behind the scenes at Bluesfest EVERY day of the Festival and be introduced to artists performing at Bluesfest.

2nd prize: One day Backstage experience: Pick one day of the Festival (and a lucky partner) for your special meet and greet with some of the artists on stage that day.

3rd prize: Upgrade to the Bluesfest VIP area: These tickets will give you and your partner access to the VIP tent, where you can relax on comfortable lounges or enjoy the popular outside area and purchase premium drinks straight over the counter.

An experience in itself. Entry to VIP for 18+ only.

Conditions of Entry:

• Competition runs from Wednesday July 6 to Tuesday July 14. We will notify and announce the winners on Wednesday July 21.
• You will need to be a Bluesfest 2012 Ticket holder to join the competition.
• Please send your Top 10 Bluesfest 2012 artists to admin@bluesfest.com.au

We look forward to your entries

Newsflash

Bluesfest has been nominated for a 2011 Helpmann Award in the category of: "Best contemporary Music Festival". Other nominees include Vivid Live 2010, Splendour in the Grass 2010, and MOMA FOMA 2011 - Museum of Old and New Art. The awards will be occurring Monday 1st of August at the Sydney Opera House. Please send good vibes to our Bluesfest!

Good luck and until next time.

Stay safe and happy.

Peter Noble and The Bluesfest Team.