2016 & 2017 Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival Review/Info

We had a good time at the Boquete Jazz and Blues festival on Sunday.

I made a short video of it below.

But it wasn't nearly as good as last year.

Maybe because it was so very hot for the first couple of hours this year.  But I think the bigger factor was the line up.

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Differences from Last Year

Last year, on Sunday, there more blues performers and the performers were much higher energy.   The crowd was higher energy.  More people were wearing mardi-gras beads and crazy hats.

Of course, we were also missing Lil Ed and the Blue Imperials.   Lil Ed brings his own very enthusiastic head-dress-wearing crowd.  But there seemed to be more acts too.

(You can see photos of the 2015 Boquete Jazz & Blues festival here.)  

Also missing was face painting and homemade gelato ice cream.

2016 Good things

However, there was fabulous pizza baked in a portable wood-fired oven.  The ice cream was good, but it wasn't as good as last year's.   I loved this year's misters that lightly spayed water on you. They didn't have those last year, that I remember.  Did I mention it was so very hot this year.

I enjoyed Tommy Castro very much.  He is more R&B than Blues, but his is undoubtedly good. But Sunday's performers weren't the same level of energy and diversity of performers as last year.

Next year, I am will check out the line up more before shelling out the money.  I go for the blues, not the jazz.  So a good blues line up is critical for me.

2017 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival

Next year's festival will be from February 9 - 12, 2017.

Partial Line Up for 2017 Festival

So far the line up looks promising

According to the Boquete Jazz and Blues website, this is the line up.

• Lowrider Band.  An electric brew of Latin, R&B, Latin, and Funk
• Caroline Wonderland.  Reigning Queen of Austin's Blues, sparks fire on guitar
• Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers.  Taking Traditional zydeco sounds to a new level, infusing blues, soul & funk
• Maria Rivas. Her exotic style & Latin jazz roots make her a unique voice

Regular priced tickets go on sale on April 1, 2016.

I wish they would dedicate Sunday to Blues and Saturday to Jazz.  I would sign up for next year right now, if I knew I could be listening to almost all Blues on the day I chose.  

Ticket Discount for Next Year

For a short time, 2017 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival tickets are for sale online at a discount.  But again, only for a short window of time.

From 
February 28th 2016, at 6pm until March 2, 2016 at midnight!

You can buy your tickets here. 

The discounted price is $117, which gets you admission for both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, this early out you cannot buy a ticket for Sat or Sunday.  You must buy it for both.

To give you an idea of the savings.  One day tickets for 2016 were $74.  I think the 2 day tickets were $169.

I am not sure if I will buy them early or not.   I would have to commit to going for both days.  Which could be fun, but I think I would have to leave my kids at home.   I don't think they would go for it, at least not happily.

Did you go this year?  What did you think?