The following is an article from our "Blues News You Can Use" e-newsletter reporting the Blues Foundation's recent announcement of rule changes for the locally hosted challenges leading up to the IBC. Please see our page with the Blues Foundation's document for more information.
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Blues Foundation announces
Rule Changes
for Local Blues Challenges
In the last ten years, the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge, held every year near the end of January, has grown exponentially. The Foundation has made many changes in rule structure to accommodate this growth. Some of the past rule adjustments have been added to limit the number of times an act may participate (after all, the event is designed to help discover new talent,) and to require acts to participate in a local/regional pre-IBC competition. For the 2017 pre-IBC competition cycle a very important rule addition has been made.
Each act wishing to compete MUST enter the local/regional affiliate sponsored competition GEOGRAPHICALLY CLOSEST to their listed home location FIRST before they may enter other regional contests. Failure to follow this rule puts acts at risk being disqualified. Once an act competes in the closest competition, if they don't win, they may enter up to two additional competitions WITHIN a 250 MILE RADIUS.
Acts considering entering local/regional blues challenges leading up to the 2018 International Blues Challenge are encouraged to contact their LOCAL Blues Foundation Affiliates with any questions.
Ozark Blues Society of Northwest Arkansas (please use our official Bentonville address for reference) will hold their 2017 local Blues Challenge in late October.
There are a number of related minor rule changes.