The Austin Blues Festival returns to Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park April 26-27, celebrating the genre with performances from luminaries like Mavis Staples to contemporary torchbearers like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.
This year’s iteration of the event – initially launched by Clifford Antone in 1999 and revived by present-day Antone’s co-owner Will Bridges and talent buyer Zach Ernst in 2023 – also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Austin’s premier blues venue. In addition to sets by standalone artists, Saturday and Sunday will both feature an all-star jam of Antone’s veterans, including Ian Moore, Kam Franklin, Jimmie Vaughan, and Gary Clark Jr.
“It’s rooted in the history lines of the blues, but also in Antone’s history and Clifford’s imprint – mixing Chicago players with Texas players in the 1970s here in Austin,” Ernst says. “The lineup for the all-star jam is really a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Getting all those folks on stage together, in front of an audience like that, especially in 2025 … For us, it’s a chance to recreate that magic that started at the original club on Sixth Street.”
The day after the festival, Antone’s takes over Austin City Limits for a special Antone’s 50th anniversary taping featuring Bobby Rush, Grace Bowers, Kingfish, Eve Monsees, Jay Moeller, and more.
Austin Blues Festival aims not only to pay tribute to the origins of blues music but also to present a sonically nonconforming variety of artists. Bridges says that although the term “blues fest” might suggest an older demographic, Antone’s draws a wide range of ages, united by a love of music.
“Clifford used to say, ‘If it’s got soul, it’s still the blues,’” he says. “He booked eclectic acts that some people might not consider blues, but if it was at Antone’s or seen through Antone’s lens, then it was the blues. By inheriting that and carrying the torch, we feel like we get to define what the blues is. It’s very subjective.
“Clifford’s perspective, shaped by his upbringing in East Texas and Louisiana and the Austin scene in the Seventies, is our truth of what the blues is. It’s a unique take, but it gives us the freedom to color outside the lines.”
Austin Blues Festival initially ran from 1999 to 2001. Bridges and Ernst sought to channel simpler local music festivals, from the long-gone Aqua Festival to the still-persevering Blues on the Green, when they brought it back after the pandemic.
“For us, it felt like we were the cockroaches after the apocalypse, building something from the ground up,” Ernst says. “And saying, ‘Hey, we can make a festival that feels really good with three or four thousand people.’ We can make the economics work and present stuff we really love. It’s a unique experience, especially for Downtown Austin. I think people who’ve been in Austin for a while will recognize the love and care that goes into it. It might even make them nostalgic for a time before the city took off the way it has.”
“Our aspiration is tradition,” Bridges adds. “Our hope for the Austin Blues Festival is that it becomes a tradition, like so many events that have come before it. Not all of them are huge events, but they’re things that are ingrained in the culture, part of the fabric of what people consider the Austin experience.”
Antone’s Nightclub presents the Austin Blues Festival, April 26-27, at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park.
This article appears in April 18 • 2025.