Salgado Subs For Ailing Allman at Blues Fest

Fans of Classic rocker Gregg Allman will be disappointed to learn he’s bowing out of the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival at the last minute. In a silver lining, however, iconic Portland soul singer Curtis Salgado will step in.

Tuesday afternoon festival officials announced that “health reasons have forced blues musician Gregg Allman to cancel his Sunday performance” at Portland’s most-celebrated annual outdoor concert of the year. Allman also canceled other performances in the region a few hours ago, although Allman’s Facebook page offered no explanation.

Putting the best possible spin on the sudden loss of the concert headliner, festival managers scrambled behind the scenes to get Salgado lined up in a hurry: Salgado agreed to alter his tour schedule and fly back to Portland to close out the festival.

In a press release, Laura Golino de Lovato, Oregon Food Bank Director of Development, Marketing and Communications said:

“There is no way we could have foreseen this change to our lineup. We are so thankful that Curtis was willing and able to step in. He loves this community and the fans love him,” adding “We wish Mr. Allman a quick recovery.”

Since 1988 the Waterfront Blues Festival has been a foundational fundraising event for the Oregon Food Bank. Click here to read more about the lineup change for the 2014 event. Here’s more on this year’s schedule.

Portland Radio Project will have several staff members and contributors covering the festival every day, including Inessa Anderson, Robert Parish, Teri Briggs, Dan Clark, Patrick McLaughlin, Rebecca Webb, and Audrey Goldfarb – daughter of Delmark Goldfarb – who founded the very first Portland blues festival (then called the Rose City Blues Festival) in 1987. Read more about the first festival here.