Simi Valley Blues Festival: Event Archive

This archived listing refers to the Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival, a long-running annual event held in Simi Valley, California, that mixed Louisiana-style Cajun and Creole music with blues on two separate stages. The Southern California Blues Journal maintains this page as a historical record from the era when regional blues calendars tracked this event; it is not an official festival page, and it does not sell tickets or memberships of any kind. Readers looking for current dates, lineups, or ticket information should go directly to the festival's own official website or organizer.

According to festival history recounted in local press, the event traces its roots to 1988, when the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise held a New England-style clambake as a fundraiser. Within about two years the club shifted the theme toward Cajun and Creole food and music, and the event grew from there into one of the larger Cajun-and-blues gatherings on the West Coast, with some coverage describing it as one of the largest festivals of its kind west of the Mississippi River. For most of its run it has taken place over Memorial Day weekend at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park in Simi Valley, with two stages running concurrently — one dedicated to blues acts, the other to Cajun, zydeco, and roots music — alongside food booths, craft vendors, and a Mardi Gras-style parade.

Booking for the blues side of the festival has, in some years, been handled by outside promoters working alongside the Rotary club, and the lineup has mixed national touring acts with regional blues and roots bands. Press coverage of the festival's 2017 edition, for example, listed headline sets from the Yardbirds and guitarist Robby Krieger, while other editions have featured artists such as Dave Mason and the Devon Allman Project. Because lineups and even venue details have shifted over the festival's long history — earlier listings place at least one edition at Hummingbird Nest Ranch rather than Rancho Santa Susana — this archive does not attempt to reconstruct a single definitive year-by-year lineup. Readers interested in a specific past edition should consult contemporary news coverage or the festival's own archives rather than relying on this page alone.

As with other entries in this archive, this listing is kept for historical reference only. The festival may or may not continue to run in its original form; proceeds from the event have historically gone to charitable and humanitarian causes chosen by the organizing Rotary club rather than to any blues society. For anyone planning to attend a future edition, we strongly recommend checking the official festival channels directly for current dates, venue, ticketing, and lineup before making plans. You can browse other regional blues dates on our calendar, read about the similarly long-running Topanga Blues Festival, or browse more archived listings in our past events section.