Legendary singer and Chicago native Mavis Staples will headline the Chicago Blues Festival when the free festival returns from June 8th to 10th. For the second year in a row, the event will take place in Millennium Park, the site of iconic public art projects like Cloud Gate (aka “The Bean”).
Staples will close out the festivities when she performs at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Sunday, June 11th. Other acts on the bill for the three-day gathering include Fantastic Negrito, Kenny Neal, Mississippi Heat, Willie Clayton, and Selwyn Birchwood.
This year’s Chicago Blues Festival will pay special tribute to celebrated local music figures like Little Walter and Bob Koester (founder of the influential Delmark Records label), while also honoring other Chicago blues icons like Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam, and Big Time Sarah, among others. You can check out the full lineup for the Chicago Blues Festival via the event’s website.
In related news, Mavis Staples recently released a music video for the title track for her new record, If All I Was Was Black. Filmed in New Orleans, the politically-charged video finds Staples watching as a Confederate monument is replaced with something much different.