Just shy of their 40th anniversary, the Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival is seeking a new home.
For 33 years, the four-day festival called the Blues Ranch, a privately-owned riverside property in Central Washington, home. But on Oct. 14, the nonprofit Winthrop Music Association which runs the annual July festival, announced that the Blues Ranch has decided not to renew their lease.
“This is an incredibly difficult announcement for us to make,” said Rick Northcott, president of the Winthrop Music Association Board of Directors, in a press release. “We had every intention of celebrating our 40th anniversary at the Blues Ranch in July.”
Since 1988, Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival has welcomed major blues and rock artists including Robert Randolph, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, and the Neville Brothers. They’ve also featured soul band Tower of Power, gospel icon Mavis Staples, and zydeco group C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band.
The festival has steadily grown over the years and garnered awards, including the Blues Foundation’s Best U.S. Festival award. The event is a major economic driver for Winthrop, a Western-themed town of approximately 500 residents.
“It’s well into the millions of dollars for the weekend,” Northcott told KNKX, referring to the revenue the festival generates for Winthrop.
Each year, the festival expects about 2,500 to 3,000 attendees over the weekend. Up to 700 of those festival-goers camp on the 42-acre property, located beside the Methow River and about a mile outside of downtown Winthrop.
“Everybody can sit down [by] the river in their lawn chair and listen to music,” Northcott said.
Northcott, who’s attended Winthrop Rhythm and Blues “most of his adult life,” said the board is “devastated” about the loss of their long-time home.
“You just couldn't get a more picturesque, beautiful place where everybody could go,” he said.
The press release from the Winthrop Music Association states that the Blues Ranch’s decision to end the festival’s lease was “not a reflection of the Association's stewardship of the property or operation of the festival, but rather a personal decision by the property owners that the time was right for their family to move in a different direction.”
Northcott also said he suspects that the family, which they’ve worked with for three generations, was ready for a change.
KNKX reached out to the property owners but did not hear back. The Winthrop Music Association said the family declined to speak to the press.
While Winthrop Music Association was planning a big celebration for the festival’s 40th year, this setback changed their plans. Northcott expects their 40th year will instead be pared down, if they have a festival at all.
“We may end up taking a year off and then coming back with a new site,” Northcott said.
Still, the board is hunting hard for a new location. On the day of his call with KNKX, Northcott had just toured one potential new venue.
“We're hoping to come up with something for the future. It just depends on what we do find, but we're looking,” he said. “We're going to keep it going.”
Editor's Note: KNKX is a sponsor of the Winthrop Jazz and Blues Festival. This article was produced independent of any sponsorship and in accordance with the Public Media Code of Integrity.
