Press release from the Sunflower River Blues and gospel Festival, July 28, 2010, Panny Mayfield, publicist, pannywriter@yahoo.com

PROCLAIMING IKE TURNER AND ROCKET 88 WEEKEND

Members of Clarksdale’s Board of Mayor and Commissioners join Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival officers celebrating the festival’s tribute to hometown blues celebrities by proclaiming Aug. 6-8 Ike Turner and Rocket 88 Weekend in Clarksdale. The hometown musicians, who recorded the world’s first rock and roll record with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis , will be honored during the Sunflower’s 23rd annual free festival. Displaying posters at Monday’s City Board meeting are from right: commissioner Grady Palmer; Sunflower officer Laura Mayfield; commissioner Buster Moton; Mayor Henry Espy; officer Maie Smith; commissioner Bo Plunk; Delta Blues Museum director and festival board member Shelley Ritter; commissioner Ed Seals; and Sunflower officer Melville Tillis. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring Turner will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 6, outside the Alcazar Hotel followed by the ‘Remembering Ike Turner and Rocket 88’ panel at Ground Zero Blues Club, and a city of Clarksdale Walk of Fame marker dedication honoring Turner at 2 p.m. Friday near the Delta Blues Museum. The public is invited to attend all events and the festival’s three days of music with two acoustic stages, a gospel stage, and an electric main stage.