The 39th Annual Milford Oyster Festival will host Blues Traveler, performing at the festival main stage on Saturday, Aug. 17.
“Blues Traveler has been on our band wish list for several years and we are thrilled to be able to finally bring them to our main stage,” said Jay Pinto, vice president of the festival committee.
“We have a great stage and backdrop for Blues Traveler,” added Paula Smith, festival president. “This is a wonderful opportunity for fans to enjoy a free outdoor concert in our beautiful downtown harbor area.”
Blues Traveler was introduced to the rock world from Princeton, N.J., in 1987. The band’s music covers a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul and Southern rock.
The band is known for extensive use of segues in its live performances, and was considered a key part of the re-emerging jam band scene of the 1990s, spearheading the H.O.R.D.E. touring music festival. While Blues Traveler is best known among fans for improvisational live shows, the general public is most familiar with the group from their Top 40 singles But Anyway, Run-Around and Hook.
In March 2012, Blues Traveler released a double-disk compilation entitled 25 on Hip-O Records; the album commemorates the band’s silver anniversary and includes their hit singles, new covers and previously unreleased B-side material. Blues Traveler’s most recent studio album, Suzie Cracks the Whip, was released in 2012.
The festival committee also announced the Oyster Eve headliner. Oyster Eve, the festival kick-off event on Friday, Aug. 16, will host Jimmy and the Parrots, one of the nation’s foremost Buffet bands, and the 2012 Trop Rock Entertainer of the Year.
For more than 11 years, Jimmy and the Parrots have been playing to crowds all over the United States as well as the Caribbean. They have been a featured band for the last several Meeting of the Minds Parrot Head conventions in Key West, Fla.
Jimmy & the Parrots take to the Harbor Stage from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Friday.
The 39th Annual Milford Oyster Festival will be held, rain or shine, on Saturday, Aug. 17, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In addition to the main stage entertainment, the event includes the Children’s Stage at Fowler Pavilion, the Harbor Stage and Festival Car Show at Lisman Landing, Armory Square Big Toys, 200 arts and crafts vendors on the green, amusement rides, schooner cruises, canoe and kayak race, and 20,000 oysters from the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association.
Oyster Eve, the festival kick-off event, will be held on Friday, Aug. 16, 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Lisman Landing.
For more information about the Milford Oyster Festival, go to Milfordoysterfestival.com.