WHEELING — As setup continues at the waterfront for the 22nd installment of the Heritage Music BluesFest, presented by Yuengling, founder and longtime executive director of the festival Bruce Wheeler teased that this year’s festival will keep the “format the same” but the “talent fresh.”

The “same format” of the festival is a three-day long celebration of blues music starting Friday and finishing Sunday at the waterfront, featuring “fresh talent” that will present “all the shades of blues,” according to Wheeler.

Friday night’s headliner is the Grammy-award-winning Jon Cleary, who Wheeler described as “the premiere New Orleans piano player” whose music “floats between jazz and blues.” When Wheeler saw Cleary perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, he knew he wanted to replicate Cleary’s setup of having his band, Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, play alongside an entire horn section at the Bluesfest this year.

When Cleary expressed that he was not sure of the logistics of flying out a whole horn section, Wheeler reassured him that he knew “plenty of good musicians” to call that could get the job done after spending over 20 years as the Executive Director and Operations Manager of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.

Reggie Watkins, a Wheeling native and “Pittsburgh’s premier trombone player,” according to Wheeler, was recruited by Wheeler to play with Cleary at BluesFest. Watkins and his group, Steeltown Horns, will replicate the full horn section experience Cleary brought to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

“It’s fun for me because my hometown is Wheeling, and my horn section gets to go and play with Jon and these other great musicians,” said Watkins. “Jon’s quality of music is really high, so we’re very excited to get to play with him.”

The Saturday closer of the festival, Joe Louis Walker, is another musician Wheeler is thrilled to have on the bill, as the artist was scheduled to be Saturday’s closer last year and could not attend because he caught COVID-19.

The electric blues guitarist blends classic blues songs and playing techniques with other music styles to create unique genre-bending music.

The Sunday closer is an act Wheeler has never seen before but is excited to have on the lineup as Sugar Ray Rayford is fresh off his win of the Blues Music Awards’ Entertainer of the Year.

Apart from the openers well-versed in the blues music scene, Wheeler said he gets a “big kick” out of presenting new up-and-coming talent at the Bluesfest. Notable newcomers include guitar player and winner of the International Blues Challenge Mathias Lattin.

Another newcomer to look forward to, described as a “blues phenomenon” by Wheeler, is Yates Mckendry, who was nominated for Best New Artist at the Blues Music Awards. At only 21 years old, Mckendry’s professional music experience stretches back 10 years, as he taught himself how to play at the age of three.

Festivities will continue late into the night at the BluesFest, with After Jams hosted by Billy the Kid & The Regulators taking place at the newly-opened Waterfront Hall, which has come on board as a sponsor. Wheeler described his partnership with owner Dan Milleson as a “match made in heaven,” as Milleson shares the same excitement for the entertainment coming to the festival as him.

“We’re grateful to play a part in one of Wheeling’s coolest cultural events,” said Milleson on hosting the After Jams. “We’ll be offering our full list of signature cocktails, our regionally diverse wine menu and a staff excited to make a bunch of new friends.”

This “bunch of new friends” comes in the form of 1,700 to 2,000 attendees Wheeler anticipates at the festival every day, with guests coming from over 25 states and even one festival-goer flying in from Australia.

“For me, putting on an event and show is like performing,” said Wheeler. “When everything comes together, and I know the audience is having a good time, that’s my applause.”

While Wheeler acknowledges that blues generally brings in an older audience, he wants all newcomers to the genre who attend the Bluesfest to experience the “top quality” and “really fun music” the genre provides at the festival.

“People always say, ‘Oh, blues is so depressing,’ but the essence of the genre was getting people over their depression,” explained Wheeler. “It was developed as the party music for the weekend, and I want to bring that party here to Wheeling.”

Watkins also believes in the importance of keeping blues alive in the city as “it is the genre that many other genres have grown out of and connects all these other forms of music.”

“Blues has influenced music all over the world,” added Watkins. “It’s an honor to play blues and keep the genre alive.”

While music will be the focus of the festival, Wheeler added that attendees can anticipate a lot of great food and art vendors along Water St. He “carefully selected” these food and art vendors so their quality “will equal the high quality of music.”

Keeping a high quality of blues music alive in the Ohio Valley is very important to Wheeler, as he greatly admires blues musicians for their dedication to their craft. He explained that these artists are not “big pop names with a stadium-level draw,” so a lot of their time as artists is spent out on the road.

“These artists are often packed in a van going from city to city, they’re not on big fancy tour buses,” said Wheeler. “They do it all for the love of music.”

If I can play a part in helping those musicians stay out on the road doing what they love to do, that’s my job.”