The Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival began in 1988 in downtown Clarksdale as a business promotion and grew into a preeminent showcase for homegrown Mississippi talent and a renowned attraction for blues enthusiasts from around the world. It evolved from free Holiday Music Festivals sponsored in 1986 and 1987 by the Downtown Association of Clarksdale, and the first full-fledged festival, initially called the Sunflower Riverbank Blues Festival, featured Otis Rush, James “Son” Thomas, Jessie Mae Hemphill, and others on three stages. In 1990, a biracial group of volunteers formed the nonprofit Sunflower River Blues Association with a mission to preserve, promote, perpetuate, and document the blues in its homeland, and it produced the annual festival at various locations until the Delta Blues Museum stage became its primary base. The North Delta Academy of Gospel Music presented its first festival in 1992 and joined with the association in 1993 to form the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival. Over its first twenty-five years, the festival presented performers from around the country and overseas, including musicians from Clarksdale's sister city, Notodden, Norway, while maintaining its primary focus on blues, soul, and gospel artists with Mississippi roots. Regular performers included Wesley Jefferson's band, the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, Big Jack Johnson, Sam Carr, James “Super Chikan” Johnson, Wade Walton, Eddie Cusic, T-Model Ford, C. V. Veal, Pat Thomas, Foster “Mr. Tater” Wiley, Johnnie Billington, Arthneice Jones, Lonnie Shields, John Mohead, Lonnie Pitchford, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Jimbo Mathus, and Terry “Big T” Williams, while repeat headliners included Bobby Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, Denise LaSalle, Otis Clay, Latimore, and Nathaniel Kimble. The festival helped make Clarksdale a mecca for blues tourists and media, encouraged business and event growth, received city support and legal accommodation for festival and nightclub activity, and honored work on behalf of blues and gospel through the Early Wright Award beginning in 1991 and the Julius Guy Award.
