Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival was one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues. Many of the performers at the early concerts were the pioneers and originators of the West Coast blues sound. In 2008, Mazzolini announced that after 37 consecutive years, the festival was forced to cease production due to economic reasons.