Attendance was down a bit for opening night of the Junction City Blues Festival in Heritage Park.

One of the spokespersons for the Geary County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Rick Dykstra, noted there were many things on the local schedule Friday night. “One of the biggest was the football game. That kind of impacted. The other was the Beauty and the Beast closing weekend, and they had a big crowd there.

Dykstra noted while attendance was down but the music was great. In fact as the last band they were all yelling encore so they got an encore.” Dykstra noted Saturday should be a really good. The festival will begin at 12:30 p.m. and go until 10 p.m.

He noted that there were many comments from people that it was neat that the stage in Heritage Park was being used.

The Saturday lineup includes the Santiago Brothers at 12;30, Yale St. Players at 2;15, Dirty Red and the Soul Shakers 4 p.m., Jimmy Lewin and the King Tones 5:45, Old No.#5 Blues Band 7:15 and the Joyride Blues Band 8:45 p.m.  Admission to the concerts is free.