BY DOUG MACKEY for WEEKLY VOLCANO 8/8/25 |
There’s nothing quite like being outdoors for a great day of live music—especially when you know each of the nine bands and nine solo acts you’re enjoying are marshaling their talents for a good cause. That’s precisely the scenario for this year’s Gig Harbor Rockin’ Rhythm & Blues Fest, Saturday, August 9, from 12:00 noon to 9:00 p.m., on the manicured lawn of the Gig Harbor Sportsman Club.
“The festival is something that actually came out of the Tacoma Old Town Blues Festival,” says the event’s founder and organizer, Mike Mitchell. “After doing it for twenty-five years, we have a new organization to sponsor and support out in Gig Harbor called Permission to Start Dreaming Foundation, which helps veterans suffering from PTSD.”
“Being a veteran myself, I decided to take all my time and organization skills and move the Old Town Blues Festival out to Gig Harbor and call it the Gig Harbor Rockin’ Rhythm and Blues Festival. The Gig Harbor Sportsman Club offered their facility, so for the last seven years I’ve been doing the event there.”
“You’re going to see nine hours of great handpicked entertainment,” enthuses Mitchell. And that entertainment will be essentially nonstop. Each mainstage act will perform a 45-minute set. Between the bands, solo performers who have graced Gig Harbor’s Kimball Coffeehouse will play a second stage to cover changeovers.
The mainstage acts represent all the genres in the festival’s title and more. The lineup: CD Woodbury, Budapest West, Roemen & the Whereabouts, The Profits, Soulful 88’s, Mr. Blackwatch, HD Fusion, The Gigsters, and King Kom Beaux.
“I’ve always been asked, you know, ‘Who’s your headliner?’” says Mitchell. “I say, ‘Point at any name on the poster. They’re all top quality.’ I handpick all the acts.”
Eats available include Gateway to India’s delicious Indian cuisine, which they’ll serve in addition to offering burgers and dogs. A beer (and wine) garden will refresh festivalgoers with a fine selection of adult beverages.
Though attendees can sit or stretch out on the lawn, folks are encouraged to bring folding or camping chairs.
“We have a big stage that’s covered and a great sound system,” says Mitchell, describing the general layout of the site. “We have a couple of scaffolding towers where we put advertisements for our generous sponsors and to promote the Permission to Start Dreaming Foundation.”
Along with arts and crafts vendors, there will be a booth for the beneficiary organization, “staffed with board members and volunteers who tell the general public all about our organization and cause.”
“PTSD Foundation is a wellness program that we offer veterans. It’s an eight-day program that takes eight to ten veterans to a private, beautiful old classic summer camp,” Mitchell explains. “You know, with a lodge and fire pits and a labyrinth. They work on themselves, with guidance, to find out who they really are,” Mitchell stresses. “Because PTSD . . . I mean, I’ve lived with it my whole adult life coming back from Vietnam, and the reason I got involved with this organization was—I cannot think of how these young men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have to live the life I lived for fifty years. And, of course, back then there was no help for us from Vietnam.”
A few years ago, Mike Mitchell told his own story in a powerful one-man stage show entitled Viet Nam: One Man’s Story. 50 Years in the Making. Dare You Handle the Truth?
A video of the stage show premieres at the Gig Harbor Film Festival the last weekend of September.
But before that, there’s a show he’s got to put on. “It’s just a great event for a phenomenal cause. Being a veteran myself, I couldn’t think of a better cause. We’ll be raising money for a really good cause and having a fantastic day at the same time!”
The Gig Harbor Rockin’ Rhythm and Blues Fest takes place Saturday, August 9, at the Gig Harbor Sportsman Club, 9721 Burnham Drive #7817, Gig Harbor, WA 98332.
Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 the day of the show at the site. Tickets are available at Harbor Barber (253-858-3613), Finholm’s Market (253-851-2229), Evergreen State Brewing Co. (253-509-0101), and Kimball Coffeehouse (253-858-2625). Tickets are also available online at: https://bit.ly/GHBlues
One hundred percent of proceeds from the festival go directly to the Permission to Start Dreaming (PTSD) Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the healing of veterans, first responders, and their family members. Learn more at ptsdfoundation.org or call organizer Mike Mitchell at 253-549-6294.
Gig Harbor Rockin’ Rhythm & Blues Fest
Saturday, August 9 noon to 9:00 p.m.
BANDS: Woodbury, Budapest West, Roemen & the Whereabouts, The Profits, Soulful 88’s, Mr. Blackwatch, HD Fusion, The Gigsters, and King Kom Beaux
