A Once In A Blue Moon Festival

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The three day festival, billed as “Georgia’s Premier Blue Event” begins on October 15th and, for the first time in the festival’s history, it will not be held at the Georgia International Horse Park. Instead festival promoters chose to relocate this years event to the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds in an attempt to expand its’ base of local customers.

Another change to the 9th incarnation of the Annual Harvest Moon Bluesfest is the drop in ticket prices from $25.00 to $10.00 for daily general admission and from $50.00 to $25.00 for weekend tickets.

Festival promoter David Dittmar explains, “Since we offer other amenities such as arts and crafts, barbeque tasting, and camping, we are trying to reach a broad range of customers over and above the niche ‘blues market’. We felt that the best way to do this was to make the ticket price very accessible and to expand our offerings to appeal to a wide range of people. We’ve been very successful with our base of blues fans, both locally and around the region, even nationwide. But, we’d really like to be perceived as a great way to spend a fall weekend, blues fan or not.”

Since its inception in 1996 the festival has grown from 200 to over 6,000 attendees and now includes a corporate sponsor and hospitality program, a VIP program arts and crafts and a complimentary playground for children 12 and under.

The Friday night lineup includes performances by Geoff Achison, Kenny Neal and Tinsley Ellis headlining. The music will continue on Saturday with Roger “Hurricane” Wilson, the Damon Fowler Group, Michael Burks, Deborah Coleman during the day. In the evening Eric Sardinas and the “father of fun” Chubby Carrier, playing with the Bayou Swamp Band, will round out the Saturday show.

The VIP barn kicks off later that night with Rough Draft from Atlanta. Sunday there will be a VIP gospel brunch accompanied by Joyce and Jacque before Rough Draft, Francine Reed and Sean Costello finish up the festival.

VIP tickets are $65 and include a reserved parking area, side stage access, a micro- brew tasting on Saturday, and all the VIP barn activities. Weekend passes are $25.
VIP and weekend tickets are available in advance by calling 404-626-2122 or at the festival website www.harvestmoonblues.com. Daily tickets are $10 and will be available at the gate. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers