July 26-29, 2012 (the last weekend in July)
Downtown Midland, TX (Centennial Plaza)
We kick things off with a FREE community street dance on Thurs, July 26 featuring Zydeco Cajun Music.
Weekend Festival Passes are $40/each. (Online, at ticket outlets and at the gate.)
Day Pass prices at the gate will be $20/each (Friday Day Passes) and $30/each (Saturday Day Passes). Day passes valid for either day can be bought online here for $25/each. See NOTE below on purchasing tickets online.
Children 12 and under will be admitted free but MUST be in the presence of their parent/guardian to gain admittance.
SPECIAL STUDENT PRICING: $25 Weekend Festival Passes w/ a matching valid student I.D. Limit one pass per student I.D. Student passes can only be purchased at the gate and are not available online or at ticket outlets.
All types of passes allow for come-and-go entrance to the Festival.
Midnight Troubadours are $50/each night.
Juke Joint Passes are $10/each.
Midnight Troubadours & Juke Joints are ticketed separately from the Festival.
The street dance on Thurs, July 26 is free admittance
The Gospel Brunch & Blues Jam on Sunday, July 29 is free admittance.
Click here to purchase tickets online.
Be on the look-out for specials that we'll be running such as Family Paks, discounted tickets, etc!
You can sign up for our mailing list on individual pages thruout the site to be in the know about special offers. You can also friend us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tallcitybluesfest or follow us on Twitter @tallcityblues.
NOTE ABOUT BUYING TICKETS ONLINE
Tickets bought online are printed from the convenience of your home computer with a unique bar code. They are scanned at point of entry and once scanned they are no longer valid. Copies will not register as valid, if the code has already been scanned.
The point of entry for all tickets types except Midnight Troubadours will be the Festival entry gates. Tickets will be validated (scanned) at the gate and exchanged for the approriate armband, including Juke Joint passes.
However, Midnight Troubadour passes will be validated (scanned) at their respective point of entry located on the lower level of the Hilton Midland Plaza in the Civic Room. This means you should NOT let the gate agent scan your Midnight Troubadour passes upon entry to the Festival, as doing so will invalidate them. They will, of course, be trained accordingly but we thought it wise for you to have the 411!
Midnight Troubadours are ticketed separately from the Festival, can be attended without Festival admission and each ticket is valid for only one night.
Click here to purchase advance tickets online. You will be able to print your tickets from the convenience of your home printer. The ticket will be scanned at at the gate and once it's scanned, it is no longer valid. You'll be issued an armband in its place that will allow for come-and-go entrance to the Festival.
Tickets will also be available at Jack's Convenience Store locations beginning in June:
Midland Locations are:
Andrews Hwy & Cuthbert
Wadley & Garfield
Wall & Midkiff
NOTE: Tall City Blues Fest is a rain or shine event. No rain checks will be offered or granted. Wristbands are not transferrable.
Tall City Blues Fest is a family-friendly Festival meaning--parents, you don't have to get a babysitter unless you choose to do so! We say "Exposure to the blues while you're young ain't never never hurt a soul!" :)
All language and visual appearances from the stages will be family-friendly content. Children under 12 will be admitted free but MUST be in the presence of their parent/guardian to gain admittance.
The Festival will offer a Family Activity Area outside on the Festival grounds, as well as inside the Midland Center.
We can't tell you...not yet anyway! Keep checking the site for announcements and details.
We can tell you a couple of things though....we focus on award-winning artists and amazingly remarkable emerging talent!
Who Do Ya Love???
There are no organized meet-and-greets with Festival performers, except for VIP's.
You can always catch them at the Cauble Sportswear Official Festival Merchandise Booth after their performance or maybe roaming the Festival grounds checkin' things out. Contrary to most beliefs, they are regular people too and occasionally like to kick back and hang, ya' know like to watch another performer.
There will be two different entrances where you can exchange your tickets for a wristband that will serve as your admittance all weekend, HOWEVER, there will only be one WILL CALL booth.
This is important if you are picking up tickets that you've previously reserved or purchased. The Will Call booth will be located in the lobby of the Hilton Midland Plaza, which is a neutral location on the Festival grounds, but outside the fence perimeter. If you know you are picking up your tickets at Will Call, plan accordingly in your parking, so you don't get frustrated trying to get there. You might also want to read the FAQ's specifically about Will Call.
Entrances will be located on Wall Street directly in front of the old County Courthouse and on Texas street at the intersection of Main/Texas. When looking at a map that puts one entrance on West side of the Festival grounds and one on the East side.
The Will Call booth will be located in the lobby of the Hilton Midland Plaza, which is a neutral location on the Festival grounds, but outside the fence perimeter. If you know you are picking up your tickets at Will Call, plan accordingly in your parking, so you don't get frustrated trying to get there. You might also want to read the other FAQ's about Will Call.
You will need a photo ID, preferably YOUR photo ID. Tickets being held at Will Call will only be released to individuals whose name on their photo ID matches the name under which we are holding the tickets.
Weekend Festival Passes and Day Passes can be picked up in groups, however VIP passes must be picked up individually by each person.
You wouldn't want us to give away your tickets to someone else just because they said they were you, now would you?
You'll definitely want to bring your lawn chair(s), sunglasses, sunscreen, hat, photo ID, camera and possible rain gear. Tall City Blues Fest is a rain or shine event.
Porta-potties and hand-sanitizing stations will be provided on the Festival grounds. Tall City Blues Fest is an indoor/outdoor event and limited indoor facilities will also be available during the hours the Midland Center is open.
There is parallel parking on the surrounding streets and ample parking in surrounding lots that will be empty after 5 on the weekday. Some charge a feee, some are free.
You can also click here for EZ Rider bus route and schedule info. The downtown transfer station is within walking distance of the Festival grounds.
No pets are allowed inside the Festival grounds. Please do not leave your pet in the car! ;)
FESTIVAL STAFF: I'm sorry mam, but you can't bring your dog into the Festival.
WOMAN: Uh, but he's a service dog.
Noticing the dog is not marked as a service animal,
FESTIVAL STAFF: Well, ok, what service is he providing to you? Are you blind?
WOMAN: No, but he is!
No joke, we're not kidding...this was an actual conversation that really happened!
Nope!
This is not because we want to charge you crazy prices for beer! It's because the venue's policy does not allow for outside coolers. Since that is the case, we will of course, be selling beer and we promise to keep the prices reasonable!
Non-alcoholic drinks will also be available.
Blues Jam follows the Gospel Brunch on Sunday (July 29th) inside the Midland Center and is a place for local folks to sign up and jam w/ some of the Festival performers, and with each other. Not all Festival performers will still be here on Sunday, but some are and they're usually happy to come jam for a song or two. Let's just say, it's a ton of fun and you should come, whether it's just to watch or to play! And besides, it's FREE! Why would you not come?
Yes! See answer to previous question.
After the Festival ends, the party continues at participating "juke joints", i.e., various venues within walking distance of the Festival. Each juke joint hosts live music, sometimes it's blues, sometimes not.
Having a juke joint pass grants you complimentary access to the venue without having to pay their standard cover charge for the night. Juke Joints passes are only $10 and can be purchased independently of a Festival Pass. Click here for the online store!
NOTE: Access to Juke Joints is included with VIP credentials!
A completely improvisational, unrehearsed jam session with that day's Festival performers winding down and cutting loose.
Troubadours will be held on both Friday and Saturday nights and require tickets separate from the Festival. So yes, this means you can attend the Troubadours without attending the Festival. Each night is ticketed separately. Click here to go to the online store and purchase Troubadour tickets.
A word of caution or guidance--however, you choose to see it when purchasing Troubadour tickets online...
The tickets are printed on your home printer and not specific to certain night, so the good news is you can use them for either night.
However, if you intend to go to Troubadours both nights and you don't have a VIP ticket (which includes complimentary Troubadours), you should purchase two Troubadour tickets. The tickets have a unique barcode that will be validated (scanned) at the point of entry. Once the barcode is scanned, it is considered used and is no longer valid, which means you can't try and sneak one past us and reuse the same ticket on a different night.
ALSO, if you have a bundle of tickets that includes Festival admission, it is advisable that you do NOT let the gate agent scan your Troubadour tickets, as that will invalidate them because the Festival gates are NOT the point of entry for the Troubadours. The Troubadours will be located on the lower level of the Hilton Midland Plaza in the Civic Room and tickets should be scanned and validated there.
OTHER THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT TROUBADOURS
Troubadours are a spectator event only and not intended to be a place to jam with Festival performers. A participatory blues jam will be held following our Gospel Brunch on Sunday, July 29 inside the Midland Center.
Content is not guaranteed to be family-friendly!
Access to Troubadours is included with VIP credentials!
The short answer is ALOT!
VIP Access gets you into pre-events & places at the Festival that regular Festival Pass holders don't get to go, plus a ton of other complimentary extras!
So what exactly does that mean, you ask? Well, for those people that committed to sponsorships or bought their VIP tickets before the end of Jan, they get a special Spring Pre-VIP party featuring Eddie Turner (Denver, CO). Click here to check out his tunes!
VIP's also get a VIP Exclusive Kick-Off Party, which always takes place on the Thursday prior to the start of the Festival, so this year that will be July 26th. If you're super-like-paying-real-close-attention, your keen eye (or ear) will have taken note of the fact that the FREE Community Street Dance is also scheduled for Thurs, July 26th. How bout that? Isn't that snazzy? And we did that on purpose! Who woulda thunk it?
And there's more...
VIP's have a VIP Parlor on the Festival grounds, just for them! That's code for exclusive-access! The Parlor is out front in the shade (as much as we could get it) between the two Main stages. They get complimentary beer, wine and catering, plus special meet-and-greets with Festival performers. The VIP Parlor is come-and-go access, but for VIP's only, of course!
And yet there's more...
VIP's get a complimentary 2012 Ltd Edition Festival Poster. Every year, the Festival commissions an artist to do the poster artwork, so they're unique from year to year and could be, like ya know, collectibles one day. :) The posters are 11 3/4 X 36, which believe it or not is a standard frame size. So no expensive framing...yeah!
And...
VIP's get lei'd with some cool credentials on a lanyard that are a piece of art in and of themselves.
And...
That really is it!
Yes! Future blues ambassadors can be as young as 15 in the VIP Parlor, but they do have to have their own VIP credentials-which means you have to buy them a VIP ticket. Unfortunately, they can't just tag along "with the 'rents". This is not Sweet Home Alabama, where they allow "a baby in a baaarrr". And before you gasp from offense, that's a line from a movie for those you who didn't get it. For the record, we love Sweet Home Alambama--both the song and the movie!
And what about that complimentary alcohol, the more prudent-minded of you might wonder? We thought about that, too, and that's why the VIP Parlor bars will be tended bars. So, if you're not sportin' a beer band, well then, you're not getting served, sport!
Yes! All of these opportunities, including food vendors are by invitation only. There is nowhere to apply, submit or fill out any information.
The Festival Office number is 432-262-0034.
