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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Expanded Wallace music festival delivers 21 acts over three days

British bluesman Ian Siegal (top), North Carolina singer Nikki Hill (at right) and John Németh (above), who started out in Boise and now lives in Nashville, Tenn., will play the Wallace Blues Festival.

The town of Wallace will host its second annual Blues Festival this weekend, highlighting the music of blues bands from Washington, Idaho and beyond.

Wallace may be a small town – its population is just shy of 800 – but they’re looking to make a mark on the summer music festival scene. The first fest was named 2012’s Best Blues event by the Inland Empire Blues Society and welcomed nearly 2,000 attendees.

This year’s festival should prove to be even more successful: Not only are there more scheduled performers, but two new outdoor stages have been added to the mix. There will also be a beer garden set up near the main stage, with even more music going on in between the headlining artists’ sets.

From early Friday evening to late Saturday night, 21 different musical acts will be performing at various venues throughout town.

The main stage will house most of the festival’s out-of-town acts, including Arkansas native Seth Freeman, North Carolina’s Nikki Hill, and Ian Siegal, who hails from England and has won several British Blues Awards.

Several bands from the 2012 festival are returning for this year’s festivities, including Sammy Eubanks, the Fat Tones, and Anita Royce and the High Rollers. Other regional acts include Bakin’ Phat, Big Mumbo Blues Band and Boise’s John Németh.

The 2013 festival is being expanded by a day to accommodate a Sunday morning pancake feed at the Elks Lodge, where the Sara Brown Band, first performing on Saturday night, will make an encore appearance.