The Waterfront Blues Festival began in 1987 as the Rose City Blues Festival – a concert to support our local homeless population, sponsored by the Cascade Blues Association. Performers included John Lee Hooker, the Paul deLay Band, Curtis Salgado, Norman Sylvester Blues Band, and Lloyd Jones Struggle. The countdown to the annual Blues Festival began in 1988 when Oregon Food Share, predecessor to Oregon Food Bank, became producer and beneficiary. That year, the festival raised $7,500 and 650 pounds of food. In 1991, the festival was renamed the Waterfront Blues Festival. Over 3 decades, the festival has steadily grown and is now recognized as one of the world’s premier blues festivals. Since 1988, the festival has raised more than $10 million and over 1,000 tons of food to support those facing hunger.