New Brunswick Battle of the Blues Competition

Every September in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival takes over the city for several days. Featuring leading Blues artists from around the world, over the past 20 years it has become one of Canada’s leading music festivals.

To celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the festival we have launched the ‘New Brunswick Battle of the Blues’ to find an up and coming UK blues act to appear live in front of an international audience at next years Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival as part of an all expenses* paid trip.

If you think you’re good enough, or know of someone else who is good enough to fly the flag for Britain at next years festival then this is what you need to know and do.

The competition is open to all unsigned Blues acts residing in Britain.

You can be a soloist, a duo or a band, but you must have original material to play both in the heats and in the final, as well of course at the festival in New Brunswick next year.

• There will be 5 regional heats around the UK, one each in Southampton, Glasgow, Billericay, Nottingham and Chorley, all of these will be held during the last two weeks of January.
• Because we expect to get a large number of entries, and because there will only be 5 or 6 places available at each heat, in the first instance you’ll need to upload a video of you playing one song to You Tube and then enter the URL of your video on this website here.
• Entries will be accepted from 11^th October until 17^th December 2010, and shortly before Christmas all on-line entries will be reviewed and the successful acts for each venue heat will be notified.
• At each heat you’ll be expected to play for 15 minutes, which can be a mixture of original music and covers..
• There will be a judging panel at all of the heats and one act from each heat will be chosen to go through to the final.
• In addition at each heat all the acts will be videoed, and the two runners from each regional heat will have one track put on-line on the ww.tourismnewbrunswick.co.uk website for the public to choose the ‘best’ runner-up, who will also be invited to participate in the final in London.
• Voting for the runners up finalist place will run from 01 February – 28^th February 2011.
• The final will be held in London on 29^th March 2011, each act will again be expected to play for 15 minutes, most of which should be original music.
• The judging panel in London will be made up of the Harvest Jazz and Blues organisers who will fly in specially for the final from Canada.
• Matt Andersen, one of Canada’s best-known Blues acts (and is from New Brunswick) will perform on the night of the final and might also be included on the judging panel.
• The winning act will be announced on that night, and will travel to Fredericton in mid-September 2011 to appear at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival 2011.
• All finalists will receive £250 towards their travel costs to London, plus will be accommodated in or near London on the night of the final.
• The final winning act, in addition to travelling to Canada, will receive a cheque for £1000.

So what are you waiting for? Get your video ready (it doesn’t have to be professional quality) and from 11th October enter here, Who knows, this time next year you could be an international star!

If you have any questions or have problems uploading your video call us on 01778-342288.

*The winning act will flown from London to Canada, hotel accommodation will be provided for the duration of the trip and a daily allowance paid per person to cover meals etc. Personal expenses such as laundry, phone bills, insurance, or subsistence costs exceeding the daily allowance will not be paid.