Rawa Blues Festival
Rawa Blues Festiwal is the largest and one of the oldest in Poland held blues festival. From the beginning it took place in the multi-purpose hall "Spodek" in Katowice . The name of the festival comes from the Katowice Rawa River . The founder and organizer of the festival is Ireneusz Dudek , a Polish blues musician also known as Irek Dudek and Shakin 'Dudi .
At the festival were among other Dżem , Irek Dudek , Tadeusz Nalepa , Luther Allison , Junior Wells , Koko Taylor , Carey Bell , John Cephas , Phil Wiggins , CJ Chenier , Rory Block , Little Charlie & The Nightcats , Guitar Shorty , Vernon Reid , Debbie Davies , Canned Heat on.
history
The first festival took place between April and May 1981. During the "I Ogólnopolskie Spotkania z Bluesem Rawa Blues " (1st Polish Blues Encounters), as the festival was called at that time, performances were organized in the clubs Akant, Kwadraty, Medyk, Puls and Wahadło. Elżbieta Mielczarek , Paweł Ostafil , Dżem and Easy Rider appeared among others . In the following years, even in a state of war , all the important Polish blues musicians performed there. Until 1991, the festival was a meeting place for mainly domestic bands. From 1992 it got international character, as the founder tried to have important international musicians perform. The concerts in the " Spodek " hall took place in 1992 in front of 10,000 listeners.
