Music brought the blues to Delft this weekend, as the Delft Blues Festival took place on February 15-16. The weekend saw 55 bands perform across 29 venues.
Pubs across the city were packed with music enthusiasts and people looking to let their hair down. While the Veldman Brothers belted out some Blues Rock at the De Waag in the Markt, Howlin’Bill kept it loud at Belvedere in Beestenmarkt. For anyone interested in avoiding the loud music, the Filmhuis Lumen screened “The Life of Riley,” a documentary film about musician BB King. This wasn’t merely an entertainment festival, you could also learn how to play the harmonica at a workshop hosted by VAK.
One of the most popular bands of the night was the Irish band Doc. Curran and the Revelators, which performed at Biercafe Doerak. Incidentally, Ricky Curran, the singer and guitarist of this band is a professor at the Aerospace Faculty of TU Delft. “The mood was fantastic on both nights. While Doc. Curran was very energetic, the band which played on Saturday, St. Louis Slim, had a female vocalist and a far more laid back mood. What was interesting to see is that there were people as young as 20 and those about 60!” says Marijke Vuik, the owner of the pub. And Curran wasn’t the only TU affiliate, Vuik is a graduate of the Industrial Design program.
The event even had its share of last minute changes. The band Jeremy & the Groove Breakers could not perform, but thankfully Jean Paul Rena and his band agreed to fill in. Visitors were kept abreast of developments on the festival website.
For students, the weekend was a much needed reprieve from academia. “We really enjoyed the music a lot. In fact, one night, we stayed in one bar for the whole night listening to one band playing for 4 hours. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition,” says Nurul Azreen Azlan of the Urbanism Department of the faculty of architecture.
The event runs every year in February and you can keep up to date with next year’s event at http://www.delftblues.nl.
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