VALDOSTA — Clear blue skies added a rather fitting backdrop to Downtown Valdosta’s Bluesberry Festival at Unity Park this weekend.

The city’s inaugural festival celebrating blues music, blueberries and brewed beer was met with great fanfare as hundreds of spectators from across the region gathered at the park to partake in the merriment.

Dom Ross of Valdosta said the concert lineup and Georgia Beer is what drew her to the festival.

“I’m normally never outside after a certain time of the year because it’s just way too hot, but I saw that the Page Brothers were going to be there, and beer was also going to be involved. Can’t pass that up,” she said.

David DiSalvo, executive director of Visit Valdosta, said in past interviews that the festival would showcase and celebrate Georgia-grown produce as well as local music and brews.

“Blueberries are a big crop, from an agricultural standpoint, in the state of Georgia. We really kind of started this thing called blueberries, brews and blues. So the blueberries obviously talk about the agricultural impact that we have in the state. and here locally, the brew is because we have Georgia Beer (which) has an award-winning blueberry beer, which is brewed with all local Georgia-grown blueberries and then blues was just a natural tie in to do blues music and incorporate something and create an event at the amphitheater. So from blueberries, brews and blues, we came up with the Bluesberry Festival,” he said.

Tyler Harper, agricultural commissioner for the state of Georgia, echoed similar sentiments in his remarks during the opening to the Saturday events.

“It’s nice to be a part of a festival that celebrates agriculture. I’m not a blueberry producer, but I eat a lot of blueberries, and Georgia is a phenomenal state for blueberries. The blueberry industry in our state is phenomenally important not only right here in Valdosta but all over South Georgia. We’re working every day to promote the blueberry industry and agriculture to ensure that our … industry is the backbone of our state’s economy and continues to be successful,” he said.

Brandie Dame, Main Street director, said she anticipates the Bluesberry Festival will be an annual staple for Valdosta, similar to the Azalea Festival.

The event started Friday evening and continued through Saturday at Unity Park. It showcased local and nationally known musicians, such as Blues Brothers members Lou Marini and Tom “Bones” Malone.