Although the dust hasn’t quite settled on this year’s festival, organizers for the Southside-Townsend Park Blues Festival are already making plans for next year.
“Next year will be our sixth festival and we plan to make it very special for the community,” said District 4 Supervisor and festival co-organizer Jeff Smith. “We don’t want to give away any details just yet, but it will be very memorable.”
Smith said he and the event co-organizer, Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor, are currently evaluating the 2012 festival, which was held July 2-4.
“That’s what you do — you sit down and evaluate the project and build on the good things,” Smith said. “Every year, we want to offer something better and different than what we did before. We are looking at what worked and where we can improve. I think anything that is successful would do this.”
Official numbers for the 2012 festival have not been calculated, but Taylor said the event, which included a softball tournament and a performance by headliner Clarence Carter, was successful.
“I would say we had between 15,000-16,000 people there over the three days,” said Taylor. “We decided in 2006 that this is something we wanted to do for the community. We had a lot of discussions with the people in the community and they told us they would like a blues festival around July 4.”
“We started out very small,” Smith said. “Keith and Margie was our only act the first year. Like most good things, it has grown. We think it’s one of the best blues festivals in the state.”
The festival was funded in part by a $12,000 from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
“We are so grateful to the CVB for all of their continued support,” Taylor said. “We couldn’t do it without their help. We would also like to thank the City of Columbus, The Columbus Police Department, the Columbus Fire and Rescue Department, Johnny Coleman and Swing Shift and all of our sponsors for helping to make this year such a success.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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