Legendary New Wave band A Flock Of Seagulls will be one of the main acts for this year’s Kitchener Blues Festival, which runs Aug. 10-13.
The British act, which is best known for 1980s classic hits such as I Ran (So Far Away) and Space Age Love Song, will take the stage at Kitchener City Hall on Saturday at 9:30 p.m.
The four-day festival has a number of hitmakers from the 1980s, 1990s and beyond, including Men Without Hats, Odds, and I Mother Earth, who will headline Friday night’s show at city hall.
Alternative Rock stars The Dandy Warhols will also be on stage in Victoria Park at the same time as A Flock of Seagulls for those seeking a different sound.
The entire festival, which will run across three outdoor stages and 12 bars, also includes workshops on Jeff Beck, Ronnie Hawkins and Mendelson Joe.
The entire festival is free aside from Thursday night’s show featuring Spin Doctors and Digging Roots, which helps pay for the entire concert.
While some people may object to the non-Blues element of the festival, organizers argue that they are looking to appeal to a wide audience.
“It’s a fairly standard practice for us to sprinkle in some non-blues acts to appeal to a wider demographic,” said Bluesfest president Rob Barkshire.
“Most festivals of this size do that. Unfortunately, we always get the ‘that’s not blues’ comments but the facts are we have a significant percentage of blues acts, and one could no doubt attend for the entire weekend and hear nothing but blues.”
He said that organizers are expecting up to 150,000 people to check out this year’s festival.
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