Popular Chicago based Blues Groovefest faces scheduling challenges for this August.

Chicago, IL – Fans of the blues may be singing the blues with the postponement of this years Blues Groovfest 09’. Music festival organizer and musician, Frank Bluestein, (“It Had To Be Me”) faces new opposition with inside organizers on the issue of timing.

Bluestein has given control of the festival back to the musicians after firing staff members for embezzlement and improper usage of funds. Now the musicians want to pull out of the highly anticipated August 15^th festival date in Norwalk, CT for a few dates in the Chicagoland area.

“Originally, we were supposed to perform in the East Coast and take the show from Norwalk up to Milford and possibly play nearby Stratford but now …. Who knows. We have an equal vote in the success of the festival and right now we are at eachother’s throats. It’s a total crap shoot as to what will happen now.” Says Frank E. Bluestein.

“I am upset with the outcome of this. I spent all this money making flyers and buttons. I produced Franks new single with Gunner Allen Smith. I’ve got 6 crates of CD’s that were supposed to go for the benefit of building a new kids center. What am I supposed to do with all of these… sell them on Ebay?” says festival partner Fritz Machauley.

There are no immediate plans as to the outcome of this festival.

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Norwalk, Connecticut – Fans of the blues will want to take note about the upcoming Groovefest in Norwalk, Connecticut coming in August 2009. The Chicago based Bluestein is the coordinator for the festival and promises that this years event will be much better in its New England location. This years  event took a lot of preparation from local blues acts in the Chicagoland area.

Frank Bluestein had to straighten out some inside fraud allegations from a group he hired to organize this years event, Christians First. The fraud investigation centered around $110,000 of missing funds  and this contributed to some scheduling conflicts. Rehearsals have gone on as scheduled and have been coming together really well.

“The beauty of this years event is that even though we had some set backs it has had no direct effect over the music. We are taking these high end recordings and will be presenting them in a 3 disc set to the attendees of this years Groovefest.” Says festival organizer Fritz Machauley. “Frank and I are quite confident that this blues music set will sell well. We are expecting 40,000 concert goers at the bare minimum. This will help offset some of our recent financial woes.”

The blues fest is going to benefit the creation of a new youth center scheduled for Bridgeport sometime in 2010. Frank Bluestein is also going to be joined on stage this year with fellow blues great Gunner Allen Smith. This promises to be a great event and a wonderful collectors item.

Stamford, CT – Fans of the blues will get a chance to hear R&B legend, Frank Bluestein, as he joins the all star music roster of this years, Groovefest. The free non-profit event is putting together a group of live performances for this day event that takes place on August 15, 2009. The sessions will be recorded and distributed on the web where people can see them. The audio recordings are scheduled to be released in  a fundraising CD to help build a youth center in Bridgeport, CT some time in 2010.

Getting the groups together took a considerable amount of time. It was not easy to get cooperation from various management during these busy summer months. Many of the performers were locked up into various commitments.

This years Groovefest has changed considerably. It has moved from its native Chicago. The festival originally began in the Windy City’s notorious Rogers Park.  The collection of artists came from different areas of the city to meet and jam in places like the Home Grown Café, The Green Mill and various rooftop parties. This is the first time that it will appear in Norwalk, CT.

Bluestein and Fritz Machauley organized the independent festival after their inhouse staff members reported money missing. There is an ongoing investigation concerning fraud centering around missing contributions. Now the artists are taking control of the situation and moving the music festival out of Chicago and into a new location.

Frank Bluestein is really excited about the move to Norwalk, “The east coast neighborhoods are really mixed when it comes to music. There is a large Spanish speaking population here that mostly listens to hip hop and rap. Then you have a lot of traditional ethnic music here in the Mexican and Italian tradition. Blues is not something that these folks are largely accustomed to. Then you have a large group of Generation X’ers here that still get together on stage to create their own personal homage to Led Zeppelin. The mix here is very strange. I don’t know what kind of crowd this is going to draw.”

Getting rehearsal space for the music festival has been very easy. Bridgeport has had a long history of having empty warehouses and industrial space.  This years turn out will predict whether or not the festival will take place here in 2010. Frank Bluestein is hopeful that it will and so is the local blues community.