Northern California Blues Festival... another great community event!

Well my friends...

It is over... the 9th Annual Northern California Blues Festival is in the can. And if you missed it, I am sorry... it was an event that shall never be the same again.

The biggest risk we took this year was turning a one day event into two days. And if you are not familiar with event planning... two days means a whole new host of variables that need to be tackled. Questions like... if you build it WILL they come? Because you are not only creating a longer event, you need you attendees to pay more for more days. Will they? Well... the question was undeniably answered for us... they DID!

While Saturday's attendance during the day was less than last year due to the 105 degree weather, the attendance by Saturday evening to watch Elvin Bishop was easily at 2500+.

Sunday's attendance for Maria Muldaur and the rest of the first ever Sunday Line-up was incredible at 1500.

But there was more than just the attendance. This year we had 35 craft vendors, 9 food vendors, two beer stations, and for the first time ever... Margaritas from Tequila 374.

And then there were the cars... incredible hotrods brought together by the Capital City Cruisers... six trophies were handed out to the winners including the Best of Show (confession here... I don't have the name of the winner but I get it for you).

The line-up of music for Tuesday was truly special... from Equinox to Elvin Bishop, from the Delta Wires to Steve Foster, from Lee Bootz to Mighty Mike Schermer (he's shorter than I thought)... it was a one day line-up any festival would be proud of.

If you want to purchase EXCLUSIVE live MP3's of the festival you can get them at http://www.jasonhaxton.com/ncbf.

Sunday started out with a wonderful pancake breakfast sponsored by the Orangevale Grange. Very tasty! The proceeds from the breakfast benefitted their scholarship fund and they are excited about doing it again next year!

Then the Sunday line-up went along with great aplomb... Jeff Watson, Strictly for Kicks, Sacramento Blues Review, Mick Martin and his new Blues Rockers and the ever so talented Maria Muldaur.

Reminder --- EXCLUSIVE live MP3's of the festival @ http://www.jasonhaxton.com/ncbf.

;-)

Maria was very gracious and sat around for at least 30 minutes signing autographs. Then the crews came in and we had the complete park back to its pre-festival beauty by 11pm that night.

If you would like to be on our email list for the upcoming festivals that I am doing under the banner of CreativeCATS presents, please go to www.matsonian.com and enter you email in the box on the left. We use Constant Contact so you can be assured of no spam.

Keep it real my friend and we will see ya at the next event.

By the way... a blatant plug here... we plan all our events using QuickPlanner Plus which you can get for only $34.95 at www.QuickPlannerPlus.com it is truly the best planning software for creating quick administrative plans. I should know... I designed it! ;-)
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Matson "Matsonian" Breakey

SAVE THE DATE - UPCOMING EVENTS!!!!

SUDS ON THE GREEN - Sacramento
Like Golf? Love Beer? Don't Play... Just Drink!
September 13, 2008
William Land Park, Sacramento, CA
www.SudsOnTheGreen.com

FAIR OAKS'TOBERFEST
An Octoberfest for BrewFest Lovers, by BrewFest Lovers!
September 27, 2008
Fair Oaks Park, Fair Oaks, CA
www.fairoaksbrewfest.com

SUDS ON THE GREEN - East Bay
October 4, 2008
Fremont, CA
www.SudsOnTheGreen.com/eastbay

CHILI COOKOFF & MUSIC FESTIVAL
October 18, 2008
Old Sacramento, CA

Northern California Blues Festival Fundraiser for Through the Mind

Forming Non-Profit Looks to Blues Festival to Bring Help to Veterans

Through the Mind, a program of the Make A Difference Project Promises to Be a free Alternative for those with PTSD

Sacramento, CA – Recent reports say it all. The war in Iraq is producing one of the worst epidemics of mental disorders among the American military. Suicides are up. Cases of reported PTSD are up. And reports of veterans programs failing to help are up.

Unfortunately for these returning American heroes, the stigma of mental health issues, most notably Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), is about as strong as the trouble they are having in their day to day lives, so many do not report it or simply try to deal with it without any direct help from outsiders.

Through the Mind, a forming non-profit program of the Make a Difference project, is passionately approaching this problem by providing free and completely confidential alternative mental health care to returning veterans.

According to Matson Breakey, co-founder of the program, alternative care consists of "any number of options that help the individual to deal with the incident that is at the root of the PTSD. That can be as simple as having a friend to talk to in a non-threatening environment like a coffee shop, or over a good cigar."

Care can range from the simple to the more complex including referral to a professional therapist who is volunteering his or her time to help the veterans.

"It is our intention to offer a number of options that helps the individual become less effected by horrors experienced over there," adds Matson. "This can include meditation, recreational activities, therapeutic exercises, nutrition, and straight forward communication based therapy. And it is all completely confidential."

In fact, other than keeping the clients names and contact information, no other records are kept by the organization. "Any documentation we create is put in a folder and given to the client to keep and bring with next time, if he or she wishes," says Matson.

"The goal is to provide the veteran with a confidential program that matches his/her personal desires, and not just push him into some system that treats every individual the same, no matter background, personal habits or the roots of the incident itself," he adds.

Through the Mind is focusing on PTSD because of its rising appearance among veterans and, according to Matson, "because it is the only mental disorder specifically tied to an incident... to a specific moment when something happened that created a burning engram, a specific trace of that memory, that the individual is now being effected by."

The main barrier to starting any non-profit organization is funding. "It was our intention to be off and running last year," says Matson, "but we did not have the funding. This year, we are hoping that the Northern California Blues Festival will raise enough to effectively launch the program."

Information about the Northern California Blues Festival coming June 21 & 22 to Fair Oaks Park and featuring Elvin Bishop and Maria Muldaur can be found at NorthernCaliforniaBluesFest.com.

 

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Matson "Matsonian" Breakey

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
www.NorthernCaliforniaBluesFest.com
June 21 - 22, 2008
Fair Oaks Park, Fair Oaks, CA
916-924-EVENTS (3836)

The Northern California Blues Festival brings together some of the hottest music ever played under the shade of old oak trees in beautiful Fair Oaks Park including music by Elvin Bishop, Maria Muldaur, Mighty Mike Schermer, Mick Martin and more great talent. Proceeds benefit Through the Mind, a non-profit providing alternative mental health care to America's returning war veterans.