After eight years and an unknown number of laid down jazz licks, Fort Worth’s Jazz By the Boulevard passed into a fond memory.
Organizers, though, reincarnated the event as the Fort Worth Music Festival, which takes place this weekend.
The new festival — doors open at 4 p.m., Sept. 30, and 1 p.m., Oct. 1, at the Will Rogers Memorial Center — brings in multiple musical genres to go along with the still-alive-and-jamming jazz. Festival goers can choose among or take in all jazz, rock, indie, blues, probably a little or a lot of country, and anything else the 20 local and national booked bands feel like playing.
In a nod to homegrown talent, the lineup includes Fort Worth acts Josh Weathers, The Orbans, Telegraph Canyon, and Tatiana Mayfield. I think I heard of Telegraph Canyon once, but I had my sense of pop-cultural relevance surgically removed years ago.
The expanded festival also includes plenty of food such as the “Culinary Tent with cooking lessons, several popular local food trucks, including Big Dogs of Cowtown, Salsa Limon, and the Yum-Yum Truck,” according to possibly the longest press release in captivity.
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Then you have your festival record/CD store, up-close-and-personal interviews with bands conducted in front of a live audience, and booth after booth of visual art.
Yes, change can be difficult but this is probably worth a try.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He’d go but he has a, um, an appointment Saturday.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NBC, NBC 5, NBCDFW.com or its employees.
