Every Fourth of July, the best in the business head down to the waterfront to give Portland everything they’ve got. What do they have that you might want? The blues. To be exact, The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival , which is not only one of the biggest annual events for Portland, but the largest blues festival this side of the Mississippi. This year, the performances promise to be the best yet, so put it on your calendar from July 2-5th to be at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival in 2009!
Outside Magazine listed the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival as one of the 15 Greatest Outdoor Music Festivals in June, 2009. You don’t want to miss over 100 performances
This year, the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is promising to help in the fight to stamp out hunger. Acts such as Etta James and the Roots Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Ryan Shaw, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Johnny Winter, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Sonny Landreth, Robben Ford, Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, and more will be filling the air with the most prominent blues performances this genre has to offer.
What, it’s not enough to see the blues from the park? Well, then a Delta Music Experience Blues Cruise might be in your future.
Festival passes are available now, so don’t delay.
How can you help stamp out hunger? Every admission to the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is a donation to the Oregon Food Bank to help them in their fight against hunger. In the past, the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival has raised over 1.35 million pounds of food. Not only that, they’ve raised about 4 million dollars in just over 20 years.
Admission to the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is a $10.00 donation AND 2 cans of food per person per day that you come. Please help stamp out hunger. No one deserves to be hungry. You don’t have to limit yourself to 2 cans either. Bring as much as you want. You know they need it.
According to the Oregon Food Bank , these are the foods they need the most:
- Canned meat such as tuna, chicken, and salmon
- Canned and boxed meals such as stew, macaroni and cheese, and soup
- Cooking oil
- Canned or dried peas or beans
- Pastas, rices, and cereals
- Canned fruit
- 100% juice either in cans, plastic, or boxes
There is also a list of foods not to bring:
- Rusty or unlabeled cans
- Perishable items
- Homemade items
- Noncommercial canned or packaged items
- Alcohol, alcoholic mixes, soda
- Open or used items
The Oregon Food Bank wants you to know that the food donations are the most important part of any food drives, but without the cash donations as well, they couldn’t fill the trucks with gas to get the food where it needs to be, the lights on in the food bands, and the freezers needed to keep food longer wouldn’t work.
As well as the direct cost of running the food bank programs, they sponsor other programs at the root of the problem, providing advocacy, education, and tools to people who would otherwise rely on food banks forever.
Remember, if you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, and you not only feed him for a lifetime, but he can feed his family, and help his village (or in our case, the economy).
Your $10 donation fills an emergency food box well enough to support an entire family for 3-5 days.
Don’t forget the FIREWORKS over the river on the 4th at 10:00 p.m. When the barges roll in and the sun goes down, you’re sure to see a show worthy of remembrance.
