PITTSBURGH -- Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s largest annual fundraiser, the Pittsburgh Blues Festival, is celebrating its 15th Anniversary this year with a stellar musical line-up and some new features. The Blues Festival, presented by First Commonwealth, will be held at Hartwood Acres for the 5th year, thanks to a partnership with Allegheny County.

The list of performers exemplifies the usual mix of blues legends and up-and-comers. The Festival begins with Free Friday, sponsored by Fox 53 TV, FedEx Ground, WDVE and Hefren-Tillotson, when admission to the Festival is free with the donation of a bag of non-perishable groceries for the Food Bank (last year, more than 13 tons of food were donated). Friday’s bands are Eric Lindell, and Cyril Neville and Tribe 13. Lindell is known for an eclectic style of New Orleans blues, and Neville is one of the famous Neville Brothers.

Saturday’s headliner is the legendary Los Lobos. Over 35 years, Los Lobos has pushed the limits of blues, rock and folk with their own special blend of Latino instruments, probing lyrics, and can’t-sit-down rhythms. Other groups performing on Saturday include Shannon Curfman, Shawn Kellerman, and Curtis Salgado. Curfman, just 24, has already been known as a blues wunderkind for nearly 10 years. Reviewers call Kellerman a true blues guitar wizard, and Salgado is a veteran who has played with the likes of Muddy Waters, Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt, and whose new release Clean Getaway was called “one of the best records you’re going to hear this year” by Blues Revue Magazine.

The Festival will close on Sunday with the “master bluesman and storyteller” Robert Cray. The five-time Grammy winner is still going strong after 25 years with the success of 2006’s Live from Across the Pond, recorded in London’s Albert Hall during his tour with Eric Clapton.

Other Sunday performers include Deb Callahan and JJ Grey & Mofro. Callahan released her latest CD, Grace & Grit, just last year, and JJ Grey’s latest, Orange Blossoms, drew this review from Billboard Magazine: “The MOFRO vibe travels freely among swamp funk, blues, rock and soul, and does so with a certain down-and-dirty swagger that's as real as it is appealing."

“The Blues Festival is our largest annual fundraiser,” said Joyce Rothermel, CEO of the Food Bank, “but it is also the Food Bank’s way of honoring our community’s support by giving back a Festival of joy, celebration and America’s great music – the blues. We are so grateful to our sponsors and to our volunteers for making the Blues Festival possible.”

Interspersed with this line-up will be local blues bands, including Glenn Pavone & the Cyclones, Jill West & Blues Attack, Eugene & the Nightcrawlers, the Jimmy Adler Blues Band, Ron Yarosz & the Vehicle, and the local International Blues Challenge winners Felix & the Hurricanes.

One exciting new feature added to the Festival this year is called Blues in the Tents, an interactive kids’ music workshop series, sponsored by Fidelity Investments, which will be an extension of the popular KidZone. Added to the usual crafts and games for kids will be interactive music presentations by local blues musicians Bubs McKeg, Eugene Morgan, Bill Weiner, Bob and Andy Gabig, and Larry Nath. Another local bluesman, Jimmy Adler, is organizing the effort which will include age-appropriate story-telling, blues history, and sing-along.

The Pittsburgh Blues Festival takes place on July 24-26, 2009, at Hartwood Acres, Allegheny County’s park in Hampton Township. Tickets to the Festival on Saturday and Sunday are $25.00 each day. Advance ticket, weekend pass, and family fun pack discounts can be found on the Festival website, www.pghblues.com, with a schedule of events and more information. Parking is free.

Admission for children under 12 is also free. The Blues Festival is family friendly, with children’s activities planned all weekend at the Festival’s KidZone, sponsored by UPMC Health Plan and Children’s Hospital, and supervised by experienced staff with Act 33/34 clearances.

The Pittsburgh Blues Festival reached the total fundraising milestone of $1 million last summer. Thanks to generous sponsorship, all money raised at the Blues Festival goes directly to support the Food Bank’s programs for helping the hungry. An estimated 300,000 people are at risk of hunger in southwestern Pennsylvania, the number estimated to be living below the federal poverty level (a 2007 pre-economic downturn statistic).