THE WASAGA BEACH FEST STAFF SPOTLIGHT: RICO FERRARA “I woke up this morning; I had the Blues for a big town” - Sweet Sammy Myers Rico Ferrara has been a mainstay on the Blues scene since 1997. It was also in 1997 that he and Lido Chilelli, the founder of The Beaches International Jazz Festival, struck up a business relationship when Lido catered his first music business endeavour – a Boz Scaggs concert at Massey Hall. Since then Ferrara's Blues For A Big Town has introduced a number of well received artists to the Canadian market including Jimmy Burns, Deanna Bogart, Reba Russell, Clarence Spady, Chico Banks, and Tad Robinson in the course of establishing a reputation for producing outstanding shows. Also, in keeping with his keen eye for identifying sure fire talent, the BFABT letterhead can be found on media releases for Darrell Nulisch, Rusty Zinn, Fathead, and Johnny Max to name a few. After an initial involvement of recommending Blues talent to the Jazz Fest, Rico became a member of the Beaches Jazz team in 2000. In addition to continuing to provide Blues talent in conjunction with Artistic Director, Bill King, he manages the Kew Gardens stage, handles all the logistics for the Main Stage talent, and lends his skills in writing on-line and program bios. Waterfront Blues is his pride and joy where he takes free rein in all the booking, media relations, as well as stage management. And, along with Lido and the team, Rico also plays an active role in booking, media, stage management, and talent co-ordination for The Barrie Waterfront Festival, and, of course, this event, the Wasaga Beach Fest, among other events. A self proclaimed “music junkie”, Rico credits Gary Cormier and Gary Kendall as instrumental in getting him started in the music business – as well as his wife Debbie who fully supported his move from corporate marketing executive – and Lido Chilelli in opening a number of musical doors for him. An active member of both the Toronto Blues Society and The Blues Foundation based in Memphis, he is well regarded in the industry. It's been an interesting trip for the 6 year old boy who ran home every day to catch American Bandstand and made that fateful first purchase of a 45 of Sam Cooke's “Chain Gang”.