LANCASTER, Pa. — The air was electric in downtown Lancaster on Saturday as music filled the streets.
Lancaster Roots and Blues is back after more than a year away and organizer Richard Ruoff couldn’t be more jazzed.
“You know we’re on 10 stages, we have 70 different artists playing throughout the weekend, we have bands from all over the world,” Ruoff said.
Bands, like Iron City, with Charlie Apicella on guitar.
“We play more in a jazz, organ, and guitar tradition and the promoter rich is a big fan of that style, so he likes the idea of bringing someone out who has more of a jazz, guitar, improvisation sound,” Apicella described.
When Apicella isn’t on stage, he teaches about ancestral voices of the blues in ensemble workshops and assemblies.
“What my mission is, is to bring together the folk and the blues elements into contemporary music and as part of that we have our teaching which is called blues alive,” Apicella said.
If blues wasn’t your sound, you didn’t need to go far at the festival.
“If you go into one and it’s not your cup of tea, just walk over to the next stage and you’ll find something you love,” Ruoff said.
Roots and Blues 2023 was cancelled due to a lack of funding.
Its hiatus had many people wondering about the festival’s future, but Ruoff knew the show must go on.
“I didn’t have access to a lot of funds, so I sold my house, I took the equity out of my house and here we are,” Ruoff said.
The festival continues through Sunday evening.
