August 11-13

             The 30th Annual FREE Sunflower River Blues and Gospel FestivalA  Mississippi Bicentennial Event, the free Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival, kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, with a performance by the Delta Blues Museum Band on the Melville Tillis Delta Blues Stage and continues through O.B. Buchana’s finale at 11:30 p.m.

Saturday’s acoustic stage beneath the air-cooled VIP Tent  on John Lee Hooker Lane presents musicians from noon through 4:45 p.m., and 5 additional acoustic stages will present musicians from 2 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. in air-conditioned settings: Levon’s Bar and Grill, 232 Sunflower; The Crossroads Cultural Arts Center, 332 Delta; Stone Pony, 226 Delta; Hattie Jean’s corner of Delta & Third; and Hambone Gallery, 111 East Second;

Saturday’s Main Stage opens from 5 p.m.through the 11:45 finale with Grammy winner Charlie Musselwhite.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13 – Musselwhite, who has been performing for 50 years will be interviewed by Living Blues co-founder and research director of the Mississippi Blues Trail Trail Jim O’Neal  in a bicentennial lecture sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and State Tourism:  “Conversations with Charlie Musselwhite” in the Muddy Waters Wing of the Delta Blues Museum.

The Gospel Festival opens at 4 p.m. in the Civic Auditorium and continues through the headliner, The Eternal Light Singers from 7:45 – 8:45 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.