HELENA-WEST HELENA — The last blues riffs from B.B. King’s beloved Lucille have long since faded into the murky waters of the Mississippi River, but officials and business owners in this hardscrabble Arkansas Delta town are still celebrating the 25th annual Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival with full cheer.
King, Taj Mahal and Dr. John were headliners at the Oct. 7-9 festival, which drew record crowds, according to event organizers. It alsosparked a mini-economic boom for business owners in the financially stressed city of about 15,000 residents.
Doug Friedlander, executive director of the Phillips County Chamber of Commerce, said that 7,200 of the $25 festival wristbands were sold this year - the wristbands allowed full access to all three days of music.
The festival’s currency - “blues bucks” - doubled in sales to more than $200,000 this year, Friedlander said. Vendors who sell food and other wares at the event must commit to accepting onlyblues bucks, and the festival takes a 25 percent commission from them.
A problem with last year’s wristband count prevented accurate attendance statistics from 2009, but “I can definitely tell you that we had the best year ever this year,” said festival executive director Munnie Jordan.
Two years ago, Jordan and a group of other local residents joined together to save the troubled festival, which began charging for attendance in 2009 after financial difficulties.
“We knew we had to do this for our community,” Jordan said. “It’s a boost to our pride, to our economy ... we did it and cleaned it up and made money with it. That’s how we booked B.B. King and Dr. John and Taj Mahal. And you can clearly see what a success this year has been for us.”
Friedlander acknowledged that there’s no way to accurately count the overall number of people who lined Cherry Street outside the paid festival gates. From the historic train depot to the Phillips County Courthouse six blocks north, crowds were very thick, he said.
“Its almost as if we have two festivals here,” said Friedlander. “Outside the gates on Cherry Street, we have a huge midway. It’s like a carnival. You can still hear all the music from the main stage there, but you can’t see the artists. Many people just walk up and down the street and enjoy the vendors and soak up the atmosphere.”
At the renovated depot, which is part of the Delta Cultural Museum, tour guide Howard Newsome stood at his office window each night during the festival and peered out at the crush of blues fans.
“There had to have been tens of thousands of them,” Newsome said. “I know that as far as my eyes could see there were folks packed on Cherry Street and the levee.”
The Mississippi River levee was a popular spot to view the festival’s main stage. It gently slopes down over a set of retired railroad tracks, creating an amphitheater feel.
Newsome said he feels sure that more than 100,000 people attended the festival overall this year.
At Bubba’s Blues Corner on Cherry Street, owner Bubba Sullivan agreed with Newsome’s assessment.He was one of the festival’s founders 25 years ago and said the 2010 event was the most well-attended ever. His shop is just across the street from the main stage, where King, Taj Mahal, Dr. John and others wove through dozens of soulful blues melodies.
“This is the most folkswe have ever had in town,” said Sullivan, who sat behind a desk cluttered with blues CDs and other memorabilia. “I didn’t see one empty space on the levee.”
Festivalgoers stopped into Sullivan’s shop by the thousands to browse through his collection of vinyl records, CDs, posters and other blues artifacts. Sullivan said he sold more than 3,000 CDs by blues artist Paul Thorn during the festival. Other CDs by artists who played the three-day event also sold well.
“We had to lock the front door and control how people came in and out because there were so many of them,” Sullivan said. “It was just crazy.”
Cathy Campbell, owner of Hand Works, a shop filled with ornamental doodads, candles and other decorative curiosities, said she saw a month’s worth of sales in just three days.
“We couldn’t have asked for more,” said Campbell, who has operated the Cherry Street business for two years. “We had 250 individual sales on Saturday alone.”
The Helena-West Helena native said she’s proud of her fellow merchants and townspeople for helping host and support a successful festival. She said the event is a chance for the city to shine.
“I really feel like we are in the middle of a resurgence,” Campbell said of her community. “You can feel it here. It’s all around us. Good things are happening here.”
Kelley Taylor, who owns the Blues Bayou restaurant with her husband, Mike, shares Campbell’s view. The Taylors opened Blues Bayou in August and saw their most business to date during the festival. They were jampacked with hungry blues fans for three solid days.
The Cherry Street eatery serves standard American cuisine, from burgers and steaks to seafood. It also offers live music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“It’s so much fun to be part of something this big,” Kelley Taylor said.
Local hotels also fared well, with many reporting 100 percent occupancy during the festival.
Ellen Rowan, assistant manager at the Best Western Inn on U.S. 49 in Helena-West Helena, said each of her property’s 63 rooms were bookedsolid through the three-day event. Normally, less than 30 percent of the rooms are filled.
“When you go to 100 percent, that’s awesome,” she said. “We had a lot of compliments, and most people said they would come back and stay with us again next year. Everyone had a great time this year.”
Just down the road from the Best Western, Brandi Linderman, manager at the Motel 6, also reported stellar business during the festival.
“We were pretty much booked for all three days,” she said. “This is a big event, and we have people who come every year just to stay with us at this hotel. This year was by far bigger than any other that I have seen. People really enjoyed themselves.”
The Motel 6 has 96 rooms, and all were filled by blues fans, Linderman confirmed.On a normal weekend, the property typically has less than 50 percent occupancy.
The city also sold more than 1,400 recreational-vehicle and camper-trailer permits during the festival, according to the Helena-West Helena Fire Department, which operates the campgrounds.
Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley said the festival is not only good for his city’s economy, but “it’s good for our emotions and our self-esteem. People get excited about this. They plan class reunions and family reunions around the blues festival.”
Next year’s festival may be 12 months away but excitement is already stirring throughout town about it. The iconic “King Biscuit” logo and brand will once again be used to promote the event.
Blues festival officials decided to change the name several years ago to avoid paying royalties to the owners of the King Biscuit name. The current name owners have agreed to a partnership with the festival, Jordan said without further elaboration.
The name honors the local King Biscuit Time radio show that started in 1941. Sunshine “Sonny” Payne still broadcasts the show each weekday from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. It’s the nation’s longest-running blues radio program.
“This is really exciting for us, because we are the King Biscuit Blues Festival,” Jordan said. “This is a real big deal for us.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 10/24/2010