BLUES festival fever has hit East Lancashire with the launch of a new colour brochure about Burnley's biggest tourism event.

Staff at Burnley Mechanics are already taking telephone calls from as far afield as Detroit as Blues fans get ready for the annual Burnley National Blues Festival, held each year over the Easter weekend.

The colour brochure, published to celebrate the festival's 12th year, lists artists, concerts, venues and fringe events, as well as boat cruises from the Inn on the Wharf, the Beerfest and an art exhibition which includes blues-related photographs. The blues festival is being supported by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Among the biggest names appearing at this year's event is "Mighty" Sam McClain, who will take to the main stage at Burnley Mechanics on Easter Sunday, April 23.

A double Grammy Award nominee, the Louisiana-born singer will fly in especially for the one night appearance which represents a real coup for Burnley blues fans.

Jacqui Livesey, of Burnley Mechanics, said: "We have been rushed off our feet this week. We have had 60,000 brochures through this office since Monday with l5,000 already spoken for and a further 7,500 to be sent out on a mailing list." People can also get details of the festival on the internet at www.bluesinburnley.co.uk.

More than 400 enquiries a week are already coming in via the site and the festival office is also fielding hundreds of telephone calls from all over the world.

Jacqui went on: "We have had one enquiry from Detroit.

"There is a lot of interest in the festival from American blues magazines and we do quite a lot of pre-publicity with them.

"The Burnley festival has got a very good, international reputation in America and we always get a good number American visitors at events."

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