Heavily attended

The formula change worked, in spite of a nasty Saturday storm.

With rockers Grand Funk Railroad and Blue Rodeo bookending the legendary Buddy Guy on Saturday night, the Thunder Bay Blues Festival was a runaway hit, said festival organizer Bob Halvorsen.

Although final attendance numbers haven’t yet been tabulated, Halvorsen said he expects a record tally based on near overflow crowds on Friday and Sunday nights.

“It looks like right now we’re way ahead of the game over last year,” Halvorsen said Sunday. “Friday night we were ahead, Saturday we were probably just a little bit behind because of weather. It didn’t break until 6 o’clock, but then the place completely filled up.

“Then today has been our best Sunday that we’ve ever, ever had.”

Halvorsen, who announced over the weekend that he’s secured Chicago to play the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium later this year, said adding rock bands to the mix adds appeal to the festival for the casual fan.

That’s what put them over the top in 2011, he said.

“There was a little bit of diversity this year with the bands, especially the closing acts. We’re never going to go away from being a Blues Fest. We’re going to stick to the roots of being a blues fest. We’ll always have all the opening acts and leading up to the headliners being blues acts,” Halvorsen said.

“But we thought we’d just try something a little bit different with the closers on the Friday and the Sunday, having a signature act on Saturday with Buddy Guy, and try to bookend it with something a little bit different, but still appealing to the same demographic.”

There was also a lot less hassle this year at the Pigeon River border crossing, which last year prevented several artists and associated crew from entering into Canada from the United States.

Halvorsen said they spent months clearing people, and only a handful were turned away this time around.

“We had a few, maybe six or eight people who couldn’t get across and we were well aware of it and the bands were able to substitute people way ahead of time. In fact, the border services even contacted the bands personally to help out and make sure it was smooth,” he said.

“Some of the bands coming across didn’t even get out of their cars this year.”

Halvorsen, the GM at the Community Auditorium, and his staff had little time to rest after tearing down at Marina Park as the venue plays host to classic rockers Lynrd Skynrd on Monday night.