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Steve Burnside performs "The Thrill Is Gone"

This year’s Cross-Border Blues Festival media kickoff concert takes place on Saturday afternoon (May 12) from 2-6pm at the Lafayette Tap Room. The Cross-Border Blues Binational Series takes place annually from June to October on both sides of the Can-Am border, drawing over 35,000 people to various venues to hear musicians from all over WNY and Ontario. Saturday’s event features Steve Burnside (“Canada’s First Man of Blues”) and his Marquis Band with special guests Tony Grisanti, Jimmy Wozniac, Donna Rose and Toronto’s Johnny Max, among others. Burnside makes his own contribution to the Cross-Border Festival by hosting his own “Summer Blues Series” at Niagara Falls’ Fireman’s Park, with weekly concerts from July to the end of August.