About the only part of the Boundary Waters Blues Festival that was bigger than the weather was the people who dealt with it.

Blues Fest Promotions Director Mary Cich stated the weather was just horrible. But it was also this year’s catalyst for making the event magic.

For her, she said the highlights of the festival are often people induced. The parts she remembers can be as simple as festival-goers helping support tent poles during a storm.

When the big winds came through overnight on Friday and into Saturday, Cich said she looked at the scene on the festival grounds and shook her head. But at that moment, she had to tend to even more immediate matters. When she returned, she found that the paying customers had cleaned up the area.

“That’s the crowd. All weekend long that’s what happened. That’s what makes it magical,” she said. “The music is great, but time and again people who paid to get in step up and help us out.”

Despite the weather, band performances were only delayed twice in the three-day event.

“We can have rain,” Cich said. “But when the wind drives the rain, that’s when it gets bad.”

Festival President Mike Jankovec said that one band had packed up to protect their equipment. But the skies turned sunny again and at that point everybody worked together and got the band back on stage.

Some vendors had a harder time than others with their displays. Jankovec said two left early because their tents were completely destroyed. The folks from the Crapola booth also had their tent damaged, but they were eventually relocated under the Blues Fest merchandise tent.

“Their tent was cart-wheeling toward the stage like a big tumbleweed and the sound crew grabbed it,” Jankovec said.

Other vendors, like Designs by Juicey, were able to stow their merchandise and set up again the next day.

“He’s from Jamaica,” Jankovec said. “He’s used to dealing with [these kinds of] storms.”

The close proximity of the new festival site to downtown seems to have had its advantages for the town.

Jankovec and Cich said merchants told them more blues people came into the their businesses than before. Two restaurants reported record numbers of customers. One blues couple said they went shopping in town and spent $700 that they didn’t plan on spending.

What’s more, excessive sound did not appear to disturb the neighborhood. They said one nearby resident said he was surprised that he hadn’t heard music from the grounds and thought the festival hadn’t started.

Though attendance at the festival was hard to gauge because of the new site, and receipts hadn’t been tallied, Jankovec said camping increased from previous years as a result of more bookings in local lodging. When he spoke with the Paddle Inn a while back, he said they were full of blues people months ago.

After hours, some of the blues performers like Jimi Prime Time Smith, Carlos Johnson and Brandon Scott Sellner, made their way through the campgrounds, continuing to entertain.

“The artists were really accessible to people,” Jankovec said. “They like what they’re doing and know why they’re there.”

Next year’s festival will be the 10th annual and Jankovec and Cich said they’re planning a big one. But they’re not sure where it will be.

Recently, they’ve been looking into a new site about a mile south of town, with the city and St. Louis County. It has the potential for hosting other festival-style events and can accommodate camping.

But at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, some council members indicated they were so pleased with Blues Festival business they might not want it to leave this year’s location. Even a mile from downtown might not bring customers to the merchants like it did last weekend.

Cich said that as a result of the help they received in preparing this year’s location, she’s seen how quickly a site can be physically constructed. However, the potential new site will involve decisions by governing bodies in the process and that could take time.