DAVENPORT, IOWA (March 21, 2024) — As the Mississippi Valley Blues Society looks to manage its available funding for 2024, the board has made the difficult decision not to hold the traditional weekend Blues Festival at LeClaire Park this year. Instead, the board will focus on several smaller events across the Quad Cities in 2024. Please continue to check our website, mvbs.org, as we will soon release more information on this year’s scheduled events.
2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Society as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization. Back-to-back rainouts of the 2022 and 2023 festivals created a cash-flow shortage as the society has become increasingly dependent on the annual festival as a major source of operating money. The Society will spend 2024 working to secure sponsorships and grant money with the intention of holding Blues Fest in 2025.
Grants and funding to support the Society’s core mission objective, educational programming, have remained strong. We continue to provide blues and music education through our website and the Blues in the Schools program. We reached nearly 5,000 children and young adults in the community last year, as well as another 1700 this past February.
We ask for the community’s support as we look to ensure the financial health of MVBS so that we can continue to entertain and educate our community.
