Eric Lindell is set to headline an 11-act lineup at the Fort Bragg Blues Festival, taking the festival tent at Noyo Headlands Park at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 1. The Louisiana-based singer and guitarist will anchor a weekend that spreads across four venues and mixes ticketed club shows with free community concerts downtown.
The lineup announcement comes from The Mendocino Voice, which reports that Lindell leads 10 other acts spanning what organizers describe as a range of blues sounds, styles, genders, ages and ethnicities. Lindell was born in San Mateo in 1969 and built a following in Northern California before moving to Louisiana, according to the outlet's reporting. His albums have come out on Alligator Records, which describes his sound as a mix of West Coast rock, Gulf Coast R&B, honky-tonk country and Memphis soul, and the label has said that Charlie Musselwhite and Tom Waits attended his early shows. Lindell released the album Oakland in 2023.
Festival producer Pam Bell told the outlet that most of the acts come from the Bay Area, and that she picks headliners based on budget and availability. She also said she chose the festival's dates to avoid overlapping with other events, and described the gathering as the first music festival kicking off the season.
Friday Night in Town Hall
The weekend's music starts downtown on Friday, April 30, according to the same report. PB & Jam Band, a Marin County group playing rhythm and blues and rock classics, opens Town Hall at 2 p.m., followed by Kelly's Lot — a Southern California band formed by Kelly Zirbes in 1994 — at Tall Guy Brewing at 4:30 p.m. The Carmen Ratti Band with Jill Dineen closes out Town Hall at 7:30 p.m.; the band won the Golden Gate Blues Society's International Blues Challenge in 2023 and released its second album, Come to Me, in May 2026. Bell has said Town Hall has great acoustics, and the festival crew installs a stage and draping there for the shows.
Saturday's Free Concert and Headliner Set
Saturday opens with a free community show: the Lucky Losers, a San Francisco band fronted by Cathy Lemons and Phil Berkowitz, play the Bainbridge Park pavilion at 11 a.m. Gates at the Noyo Headlands Park tent — first erected for the festival in 2026 — open at noon. Maxx Cabello Jr., a guitarist and singer from the South Bay, takes the tent stage at 1 p.m., followed by the Jenny Kerr Band at 3 p.m. Kerr plays clawhammer banjo, dobro, guitar, piano and harmonica, and her album The Girl Who Swallowed the Moon came out October 23.
Lindell's 5 p.m. set is followed later that night by Ben Rice & The PDX Hustle, who bring a horn section to Town Hall at 8:30 p.m. Rice started the band in 2023 and performs across the Pacific Northwest, but the show is limited to all-access ticket holders, as the festival's schedule reserves most of the Town Hall and Tall Guy Brewing shows for weekend pass buyers.
Sunday's Closing Set
Festival gates open again at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 2. Lilla, who was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and won the Cascade Blues Association's Solo Journey to Memphis Challenge before competing at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, plays at 12:30 p.m. Dennis Johnson and the Revelators follow at 2:30 p.m., and the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra featuring singer Willy Jordan closes the festival at 4:30 p.m. Anthony Paule formed the band in San Francisco in 2007, and the group carries 20 Blues Music Awards nominations without a win, per the outlet's reporting.
Passes, Prices and a Possible Friday Workaround
The festival sells 150 all-access passes, a number Bell said is set by the size of the rooms the shows are held in. Those passes cover the whole weekend, while weekend and day passes cover the Noyo Headlands Park tent. All-access passes go on sale at 8 a.m. on Dec. 1, with the first 50 buyers saving $35, and the festival's post gives Jan. 15 as the date all tickets go on sale. No 2027 prices have been posted yet; in 2026, an all-access pass cost $295, a two-day pass cost $175 and a day pass cost $100.
If all-access passes don't sell out, Bell said she may open the Friday shows to single tickets closer to the festival, at roughly $35 to $40 a show, meaning attendees could show up Friday to see whether room remains. Bell has acknowledged that most of the festival's audience comes from out of town, and that some Fort Bragg residents can't afford a ticket.
Nonprofits and City Backing
Local nonprofits work the festival and keep what they earn, Bell has said, framing it as a way for groups to raise money independently. Mendo Food Network sold beer and wine at the 2026 festival and Flockworks ran parking, and both are expected to return. The Fort Bragg Blues Festival is organized as a city event; the outlet reports that the Fort Bragg City Council approved a contract with Bell's company in August to produce it and named the first weekend in May Fort Bragg Blues Festival Weekend.
According to Mendo Local News, council staff were directed at the May 26, 2026, meeting to return with a resolution formally designating that weekend for the festival. At that same meeting, Bell reported that the second annual festival generated approximately $132,000 in revenue, a nearly 70 percent increase over the prior year, along with 793 hotel room nights and $10,700 raised for local nonprofits — numbers that help explain why city leaders have kept backing the event. Bell has said the festival aims to raise morale and promote Fort Bragg as a visitor destination.
The event has grown quickly since its debut. The Press Democrat reported that the first-ever Fort Bragg Blues Festival ran May 2-4, 2025, featuring nine bands across five venues, with organizers saying the ticketed indoor shows were nearly sold out. That inaugural year also included a free community street party and parade on the Saturday morning, featuring the Bourbon Street Brass Band.
