NORWICH – It's here! The event that swarms of locals and out-of-towners alike have been waiting for all summer is finally here, and organizers of the much revered Chenango Blues Fest are giving mother nature herself two thumbs up for her fair-weather green light.

The 23rd annual Chenango Blues Fest will be “all systems go” and ready to kick off this evening with its free concert offering intended to give the community a sampling of what's in store for Saturday.

For close to a quarter century Chenango Blues Association Board of Directors President Eric Larsen and company have offered up a veritable “who’s who” of blues music's top regional and national talent with an annual draw approximately hovering somewhere in the 3,000 head count.

And while disposable corporate genres may have come and gone in the 23 years since the “best fest's” inception, by all accounts the blues are here to stay as evidenced by the yearly migration of northeast blues enthusiasts to the faded dot know as Norwich on the map.