Crossroads Blues Society
Keeping the Blues Alive Award Recipient 2014
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16th Annual
Crossroads Blues Festival at
Lyran Park

Saturday
August 23, 2025

Ticket Outlets

Rockford
Woodman's
Culture Shock
CD Source
Guzzardo Music
Lyran Society
Lonnie’s CarpetMax
Lonnie’s Stonecrafters

Snyders Drugs
Byron
Oregon
Winnebago​

Machesney Park
Pig Mind's Brewing Company

Music On The Rock 2025
Wednesdays from June 4 to August 20, 2025
5:30 to 8:30 PM
Burpee Museum of Natural History
​737 N Main St, Rockford, IL 61103

12 great weeks of blues music and it's all free! Food vendors are on rotation and Prairie Street Brewing Company will have beer and wine for sale each week. You can also bring your own food and beverages to the show.

ALL SHOWS ARE FREE!​​

Sponsors


Crossroads Blues Society Vision Statement

We see a country and world where blues music is appreciated for what it is- the heart and soul of African Americans and their plight expressed in music and song. We envision the blues taking their rightful place in America’s songbook as the father and mother of all American popular music with a populace that understands and appreciates the blues just for that. We see a world embracing the blues as America’s contribution to the great music that we and others across the world enjoy and appreciate.


Crossroads Blues Society Mission Statement

Crossroads Blues Society’s main purpose is to keep the blues alive. We will do this by promoting blues music, educating both youths and adults about the history and the music we love, and working to advance the blues and it’s “babies” in order to ensure that blues music lives on forever.


Crossroads Blues Society Moving Forward

We will embrace the blues and the music it gave us and work to ensure it is both noticed and accepted not by just blues fans but also by the mainstream populace who need to see and hear the blues for what they are and for what they are missing out on. We will diligently work to ensure that “keeping the blues alive” is not just a useless slogan but a meaningful call to arms for us and others to embrace and make a reality.
Crossroads will work to continue and expand Blues In The Schools and other educational activities to advance knowledge of the blues to current and future generations. We will work to promote the blues via our newsletter, shows and other activities to ensure our local and regional communities have blues music to appreciate. We will work to ensure the careers of musicians are enhanced and help in keeping the blues alive. We will work with other musical endeavors related to the blues and African American culture to increase awareness of the blues and the contribution of African Americans to the blues and our musical heritage.

Crossroads Blues Society
What We Stand For 

Crossroads Blues Society, or CBS for short, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that primarily raises funds in order to host Blues In The Schools Programs in the greater Rockford area of northern Illinois.  These programs are fully funded by CBS and there is absolutely no cost to area schools for these programs.  We have done this since May 2002 and have now done 882 programs for over 110,000 students in northern Illinois since then.   Founded in 1994 and incorporated shortly thereafter, we had our biggest year ever in the 2018-2019 School Year with 141 BITS programs for over 11,000 students and over 60 shows for the community!  Our 2019-2020 BITS year was cut short with the Corona Virus outbreak, but we till managed to do over 90 programs for each of the pandemic impacted years. In the most recent 2023-2024 school year we did 82 programs for over 9,400 students. We were the 2014 recipient of the Blues Foundation Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Foundation Affiliates and were also inducted in to the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014 for our work.

Funding for BITS now comes primarily through profits from our festival.  In 2010, Crossroads embarked on their first festival effort since 1995.  The Crossroads Blues Festival, held on the Saturday of the weekend before Labor Day Weekend, was held each of the first four years in downtown Byron, IL. In 2014 it moved and was held at Lyran Park in Rockford, just south of the Rockford Airport.  Crossroads has had success each year in providing a great lineup and full day of music at a reasonable cost.  The festival features artists on stage and music workshops. We also began a Red, White & Blues Festival at Lyran Park in July 2023 that continues. This event honors our veterans and active duty personnel. We've done other festivals over the years, includinf 2 at the then Aviators Satdium in Loves Park in 2013 and 2014 and our founders did a pair of events in Lanark in 1994 and 1995.
 
Crossroads also publishes a bi-monthly newsletter with articles, music reviews and other related information.  It is published and distributed to our members, record companies and other blues industry organizations.  It is published in full color electronically (usually between 36 and to 48 pages) and in black and white as a 12 to 16 page hard copy witha color cover.  Each issue usually contains 25-40 reviews of recently released CDs, DVDs and books. Our newsletter has been in existence since 1994.
 
In October 2013, Crossroads held their first blues challenge and has held one annually since.  Crossroads also works with a number of local venues and organizations to produce a number of live music events each year.   We also fund an award an annual music scholarship in honor of Karen Howard, one of the founders of Charlotte's Web for the Performing Arts.

For the most up to date information, go to our Upcoming Events Page to read about what our upcoming events are.  Our BITS page and other links pages here can give you information and access to our programs and web sites. 
Crossroads Blues Society - Who Are We?

Crossroads Blues Society, PO Box 840, Byron, IL 61010                                          sub_insignia@yahoo.com