Springing the Blues Festival at Seawalk Pavilion, Jacksonville Beach (April 12, 2026)

We briefly took a drive down to Jacksonville Beach to catch a few hours of the long-running Springing the Blues Festival, at the beautiful Seawalk Pavilion on an equally beautiful day with a blue sky with no hint of rain. It was just the perfect, lazy day to enjoy the blues, right next to the beach.

As I have previously mentioned for this type of large free music festival, parking is a hassle. Nearby parking lot suddenly surge their prices to “event pricing”, meaning it’ll now cost $20, when on a regular day it’s $5 or even free. I get it, it’s the price that the market will bear, and if there’s demand, they’ll take advantage of it.

Sunday was the last day of the Springing the Blues festival and generally a shorter day, as well as ending early. Still, everyone on the bill got a generous one-hour set, with an introduction from the festival’s organizer, who was very knowledgeable with all the artists.

In addition to the music, there are also an arts market section, which had clothing, homemade goods, and various goods you can buy. Then there is the food court area, which was nicely laid out with a Ferris wheel in the center. It was pretty cool, and I know a lot of families were enjoying the diverse food and ice cream and cool drinks.

We caught two bands, the first was Baton Rouge’s Jovin Webb who was featured on Season 18 of American Idol. “All Night Long” singer Lionel Richie described Webb’s voice as “what barbecue sauce sounds like.” Webb is currently signed to Blind Pig Records with the album Drifter.

You probably know California’s Jimmy Vivino (aka “Jimmy V”) as being the band leader for Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for Conan O’Brien. Previously, he was also in the Tonight Show Band house band on The Tonight Show or The Late Show with Conan O’Brien on NBC.

At age 71, he’s still recording (his latest Gonna Be 2 Of Those Days came out last year), but he’ll play whatever the band wants to play. In fact, before his set, he said he normally work on a loose setlist, but for this show, they were just going to wing it. That just shows that he has a jazz side to him, as he plays the blues. I’ve seen bands that haven’t practiced or learned a certain song, so they won’t play it on their set – not with Vivino. He’s been around, he’s the real deal, he’ll know how to get it done.

I love that the Springing the Blues Festival is free and open to the public. My only one minor complaint is that they fenced off a whole front area near the stage for the VIP. I understand they have to make money somehow, but we couldn’t get close the stage at all. Anyway, we’ll try to make it back next year’s Springing the Blues Festival. Hope to see you there too!

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