The lights are out, the stage has been struck, equipment and supplies have been put away. Its the end to another Hot Springs Blues Festival. We dodged a lot of bullets to make this happen...late performances, weather, a few production issues...but, we dodged them to bring the Spa City another great event. I wanted to take time to send out some thank yous to the folks who helped make the 2014 edition a success... First off, a big thanks to the SCBS board of directors...Marc Albrecht, Sandra Harris, Sherree Hughes, Rob Pratt and Mary Melton. These are the people, along with myself, who plan the festival and set things in motion. These folks are the ones running around behind the scenes taking care of all those little details and emergencies that have to be handled. You guys are an awesome board and you do the things that have to be done to make it successful. To our volunteer team captains...Leadra Orr, Relda Steelman, Rob Pratt, Rachel McBride, Gio Splawn, Sherree Hughes and Charles & Lori Ragsdell...Thank you so much for your efforts coordinating the volunteers, overseeing the shifts and basically just being super bad asses at what you do! To all the volunteers who worked selflessly from Wednesday through Monday, setting up, tearing down, filling in, running errands, directing traffic, taking care of artists, and on and on...you guys ROCK! we had over 100 volunteers this year. It takes a small army like this to make sure all the moving parts of our festival stay oiled and in motion. We couldnt have done it without you. A big thanks to all of our sponsors for helping. We could not put this festival on without your generous support of money, time and resources. In particular a big thanks to Visit Hot Springs, the Ohio Club, Noalmark & Real Rock 101.5, Coco Beverage and Oak Park Pharmacy. We have the loyalty of some really wonderful sponsors and I promise you it does not go unnoticed. Thank you, thank you, thank you for continuing to support this event. Big kudos to Rachel Fields, Steve Hester, Jen Ocken, Sherree Hughes, Charles Ragsdell and Tim Williams for doing our workshops. Special thanks to the following people for their efforts...Dannielle Davis for organizing our volunteers this year; John Vaught for helping get our posters & T-shirts and for working with Mr. George Hunt; Teen Challenge for all their hard work setting up & tearing down; Tommy Ragan from Tom Cat cigar box guitars for his donation to our BITS program; Bert Clevenger for his custom guitar that he built and donated to be given away; Charles Ragsdell for the diddley bow donation; Karen Urankar for putting all the food together for our reception; Quapaw Bath House for hosting the reception; Mr. George Hunt for once again supplying the artwork for our posters and shirts and for just being such a great man; Cindi & Greg James from the Blues Foundation; and the Hot Springs Police Department for keeping the peace. Many kudos to the musicians who played the festival and the pre & after parties. The music is why we do what we do. This years lineup included some of the best music weve brought to town in awhile. From start to finish every single act layed it on the line. I am particularly proud of our local bands for the way they shined. I tell people that Hot Springs has some of the best musicians in the world and they proved it. Thanks to all of you! Finally, thank you to the fans. You are the ones who make the music go by coming to the festivals, buying the CDs, telling people about the music and keeping the support going. We had many repeat fans yet again this year. We had lots of new fans who came to town for this event. We even had a couple from the United Kingdom come to Hot Springs just for this event! I hope all of you had a great time and will make plans to come back Labor Day Weekend 2105. If I missed anyone, my apologies. I am overwhelmed by the support of the people of Hot Springs and the music fans in general who make it out for this event. Thank you all for making this years fest a great event. Heres to ya!
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 14:01:53 +0000
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