Dear Blues Fest Fans & Supporters,

It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing the end of the AimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festival after twelve amazing years bringing together dozens of award-winning musical acts, blues lovers, volunteers, and Food Bank supporters.

The AimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festival was a family-friendly event that benefited the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and our North County Food Bank chapter. Since 2011, the event has raised nearly $1.3 million and approximately 21 tons of food for the Food Bank’s critical hunger-relief programs.

Over the years, the AimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festival has attracted thousands of local and out-of-town visitors to the downtown San Diego waterfront to enjoy a day of renowned musical artists playing live on two stages from morning to sunset. The annual festival featured specialist local food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, amid breathtaking views of San Diego Bay and the downtown skyline.

Announcing the end of our beloved San Diego Blues Festival does not come easy, but the combination of soaring inflation, skyrocketing production costs, and supply-chain challenges have created an environment in which we are unable to continue with the annual event.

Vince Kasperick founded the AimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festival in partnership with Event Producer, Michael Kinsman, and the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank in 2011 which brought Grammy-award-winning musical artists to San Diego for over a decade.

The AimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festival has featured a host of award-winning headliners including Billy F Gibbons & Friends, Mavis Staples, Eric Burdon & the Animals, Tommy Castro & the Painkillers, Los Lobos, and Taj Mahal with the Phantom Blues Band. In addition, the festival has featured rising stars of the blues world including Big Jon Atkinson, Larkin Poe, Aki Kumar, and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.

The festival also featured local, hometown blues musical acts including Whitney Shay, the late Candye Kane, The Paladins, Nathan James & the Rhythm Scratchers, The World Famous Jim Gibson, Blue Largo, Sarah Rogo, Chickenbone Slim & The Biscuits, Fred Heath, The Fremonts, Taryn Donath, Ben Powell, and many more.

On behalf of the Food Bank, I would like to thank the dedicated blues fest fans who attended the San Diego Blues Festival over the years, the Food Bank’s staff and volunteers who worked the event, the wonderful musicians who played at our annual festival, our corporate sponsors who underwrote the event through monetary and in-kind sponsorship, our Event Producer, Michael Kinsman, and the event’s Founder and Title Sponsor, Vince Kasperick of AimLoan.com.

In particular, I would like to thank our major corporate sponsors AimLoan.com and Baker Electric Home Energy for their many years of corporate support. I would also like to thank our Stage Sponsors and leading corporate and civic sponsors including Delta Dental, BCS, Wells Fargo Bank, ShopCore, US Bank, Health Net, Alaska Airlines, the City of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture, the County Board of Supervisors’ Community Enhancement Program, the San Diego Convention Center, Centerplate, the Port of San Diego, and all of our many amazing sponsors over the years.

In particular, the Food Bank honors AimLoan.com for supporting the San Diego Blues Festival from its inception. AimLoan.com’s support of the Blues Festival was an integral part of the event’s success as a benefit concert for the Food Bank’s hunger-relief programs. We extend our deepest gratitude to Vince Kasperick of AimLoan.com for his significant contributions and generous support of the San Diego Blues Festival and the Food Bank’s critical mission.

The Food Bank encourages San Diego Blues Festival attendees and supporters to continue supporting our mission through our other major fundraiser events including our annual Chefs, Cork & Craft Gala, our Drive Out Hunger Golf Tournament, and food drive campaigns including the School’s Out, Hunger’s Not Summer Food Drive and our annual Holiday Food Drive.

Sincerely,

Casey Castillo
CEO
Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank