The Board of Directors of Mississippi Action for Community Education, Inc., along with the staff and all our volunteers wish to thank everyone who attended the 35th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival. We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you on September 21, 2013 for the 36th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival.
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2013 Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival Sponsorship Opportunities
Advertisers and sponsors contribute greatly to the success of this award-winning blues festival and your appreciation is greately appreciated. If you would like to become a sponsor, visit our sponsor's page for additional information.
2013 Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival Souvenir Book
Advertisers and sponsors contribute greatly to the success of this award-winning blues festival and your appreciation is greately appreciated. If you would like purchase an ad in our Souvenir Booklet, please download our:
2013 Blues Festival Poster Contest
Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE) is accepting entries for the poster design for the 36th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival to be held on September 21, 2013. The theme for this year’s festival is: “Da Blues is Like Comin' Home.” The deadline for submission is June 3, 2013. The contest is open to all artists of all ages in any country.
The Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival oldest continuously operating blues festival in the country. Initially, the Festival was almost exclusively comprised of traditional blues people, playing acoustic instruments, (guitar, harmonica, and jug), on a flatbed trailer stage surrounded by the audience. While the Festival has grown in size it is still a community event.
The winning design will be selected by a panel of judges selected from the fields of arts, design and marketing. The winning artist will receive a cash award of $500 and be honored at a media reception to be held the first week of August, 2013. The poster artwork will be used in all promotional materials for the Festival. MACE will own all rights to the poster
In making its decision, the selection panel will consider the following:
1. How the Festival’s 36th theme is depicted in the design.
2. How the Blues and its significance to the community and the world are represented.
3. The overall artistic excellence of the proposed artwork.
Entries must include an artist bio and the poster design. All entries must be received by June 3, 2013. Please mail or drop off your entry to: Mississippi Delta Blues Festival Poster Contest, 119 South Theobald Street, Greenville, MS 38701.
For additional information, please call 662-335-3523 or email postercontest@deltablues.org. The winner will be notified by July, 2013.
To download the rules and official application, please click ----> 2013 Poster Application
September 21, 2013 is the big day of the Festival
The purpose of the Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival is to reach a worldwide audience with a celebration of the contributions the Mississippi Delta Blues culture has made to the American story - and to help preserve that culture.
Mississippi Delta Blues is globally recognized as one of the most America's important musical forms. A major catalyst for American popular culture, it exists in both a folk context and as a product of the commercial music industry. In the face of a historically brutal social experience, black folk in America affirmed their humanity by remembering and creating a rich expressive culture of poetry, tales, crafts, ritual, dance and music. This system embodied techniques of cultural transmission, transformation, adaptation and survival. Early Blues developed out of this rich fabric and cross-fertilized the work-songs, love-songs, slow drags, rags and spirituals. Delta Blues soon became the emotional and literary voice of black singers across the south.
Ironically, black and poor people from the Mississippi Delta, who gave the world the Blues, had limited access to traditional or contemporary institutional arts and cultural programming. The products of most rural peoples' art are inaccessible to them. They are housed in urban academic institutions and archives. They need to be preserved and showcased to larger general audiences as the legacy of a living culture.
While this art form was being celebrated internationally, the Delta region was still one of the poorest regions in the country. In 1976, Mississippi Action for Community Education, Inc. (MACE) saw the need to help create financing for educational programs and gave birth to the Delta Blues & Heritage Festival.
The success of the Delta Blues & Heritage Festival spurred the creation of festivals all over the Delta.
Blues Festival Infomation
If you have questions regarding the Blues Festival, please visit the "Contact Us" page for contact information. Please Click Here
2012 Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival Poster
The official poster for the 35th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival was unveiled on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at a reception held at Harlow's Casino Resort & Hotel. The reception was sponsored by MACE & Harlow's Casino Resort & Hotel.
The poster was designed by Heather Balchunas of Somerville, MA. Please click on Heather's bio to read more about her.
Heather is the winner of the 2012 Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival Poster Contest.
2012 Blues Festival Poster Contest Winner
CONGRATULATIONS Heather Balchunas of Somerville, MA, winner of the 2012 Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival Poster Contest.
