The Berwyn Blues Festival may be young, but it’s already mighty. The inaugural fest was held in late September 2021 featuring more than 20 artists on indoor and outdoor stages.
Here are six facts you need to know to prepare for this year’s Berwyn Blues Festival.
FitzGerald’s has been a live-music destination in Cook County for decades. The FitzGerald family owned the music venue for 40 years before selling to Will Duncan, a Chicago food and entertainment veteran, in 2020. Duncan previously served as beverage director for a collective that owned some of Chicago’s most popular restaurants and venues, including Longman & Eagle and Thalia Hall.
In taking over FitzGerald’s, Duncan kept on the existing staff, including Donnie Biggins, the nightclub’s head of music. Duncan told the Chicago Blues Guide that the fest was Biggins’ brainchild. “Donnie suggested we try a blues music festival considering how much blues FitzGeralds presents to such a loyal fan base and great audiences. Blues is also a symbolic and essential Chicagoland cultural experience,” Duncan said.
You’ll find FitzGerald’s at 6615 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn.
The 2022 Berwyn Blues Festival will again be held the last weekend in September. If you’re a huge blues fan, plan to “bookend” your blues festival experiences with the Chicago Blues Music Festival in Millennium Park in June and Berwyn’s Blues Fest in September. It’s the Chicago way!
Last year’s September 24th festival cast a wide net geographically, including blues artists from Illinois, Texas, New York, Louisiana, Detroit, and the Mississippi Delta. Chicago’s Shemekia Copeland, New Orleans’s Honey Island Swamp Band, Donna Herula, The Blues Imperials, John Primer, Thornetta Davis, Brother John Kattke, Mike Wheeler Band, and Austin’s Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears were just a few of the musicians on stage. The event proceeded safely during the pandemic with proof of vaccination and 72 hour covid tests required for entry.
This year’s artists for the Berwyn Blues Festival haven’t yet been announced, but you can bet they’ll be dynamic performers from across the country.
What pairs better with blues than the delicious taste of smoky barbecue? Babygold Barbecue smokehouse is attached to FitzGerald’s and offers full service throughout the music venue. The restaurant’s fare includes barbecue sandwiches, sides and appetizers such as brisket chili, smoked shrimp cocktail, coleslaw and Cajun brussels sprouts. Brunch options include biscuits and gravy, a creole omelet and a breakfast po’ boy.
Wash down your hot blues and smoky barbecue with cold beer, wine or cocktails. FitzGerald’s offers a number of locally made beers on tap, but you’ll be sure to find your favorite bottled beer on the drinks menu too.
If you’re planning to spend the weekend in Berwyn for the Blues Festival, there’s an array of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, including accommodation in nearby Oak Park. To name just a few, there’s the Harvey House Bed & Breakfast, located in Oak Park, which has stately suites and is only a six-minute drive from FitzGerald’s. There’s also the Carleton of Oak Park, a boutique hotel that’s about seven minutes from the nightclub by car. If you’d like to stay directly in the mix, consider the FitzGerald’s and Babygold Sleepover Castle, a three-bedroom apartment located directly upstairs from the music venue. Guests can order barbecue room service and see the outdoor patio stage from the apartment’s living room.
Guests of all ages can attend the Berwyn Blues Festival, but any attendee under age 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Admission is free for children 5 years and under.
Are you booked in for the Berwyn Blues Festival? Whatever time of year you’re visiting Oak Park, you can find some of the best jazz and blues acts in Illinois right here. Make sure you stay up to date with the Berwyn Blues Festival and all the live acts happening in and around Oak Park.