Blues and Rock in Phuket
Headliner Eric Bibb.
FROM A ROCKY START in 2006, when just 80 people attended (there was a huge storm that waterlogged the site and blew the tents to shreds – the event was moved indoors but most people thought it was canceled), the annual Phuket Blues-Rock Festival has grown steadily in terms of the number of bands (12 this year), the numbers attending (2,000 last year) and the quality of the acts.
This year’s two-night festival takes place in the grounds of the Hilton Arcadia Resort on February 20 and 21. The headliner is Eric Bibb, who has recorded with Taj Mahal, appeared on the TV show Later with Jules Holland and toured with John Mayall, Robert Cray and Ray Charles. He has also played at the Glastonbury Festival and the Nice Jazz Festival.
Other acts will include boogie-woogie pianist Mitch Woods from California, Swedish blues duo Bert Deivert and Janne Zander, American Rich ‘Guitar God’ Harper – a festival stalwart – and Australian blues chanteuse Kniki, along with Thailand-based bands such as Blues Machine, Cannonball and the Groove Doctors, and a Jimi Hendrix tribute band, Chasing Jimi.
Tickets, at 800 for one night or 1,200 for both nights, are currently being printed and will be available soon at outlets listed on the festival website at www.phuketbluesfestival.com. There are also 3,000-baht VIP tickets that admit holders to the VIP lounge where beer and wine will be free.
See the website, too, for details of the warm-up session in Phuket Town the night before the festival, and the post-festival jam sessions in town and in Kata.
