Posted March 12, 2025 – Narrated by Jim
“Everything comes out in blues music:
Joy, Pain, Struggle.
Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance.”
The art of biscuit making is a tender process where contrasting ingredients are gently coaxed into an improbable friendship. No two biscuits are exactly alike, but a good biscuit is something you can give yourself wholly to, even while eyeing the next one. Satisfaction is elusive. There’s always plenty and never enough.
Yeah, I’m talking about The Blues.
The Blues sweet-talks electrifying joy and benumbed pain into a soul-satisfying concoction and lays it all out on the table. Come and get it. Blues and biscuits. No one does it better than “King Biscuit“ in Helena Arkansas, one of the best Blues festivals in the world.
The festival was founded in 1986 with homage to the longest running radio show in America, The King Biscuit Time Radio Show.
In 1992 KFFA was awarded the Peabody Award.
Thousands of visitors from around the world gather in historic downtown Helena, Arkansas for a three-day Blues buffet.
In the mid 1950’s, Helena bustled with economic energy. With a busy port on the Mississippi River, Helena boasted a lively commercial district, grand homes and factories. But, like many beautiful cities of the south, after the decline of King Cotton, the rich folks folded up shop and the poor folks were left with nothing but biscuits and The Blues.
In fat times and lean times, all of the greats, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson, Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf played in Helena.
Every October, The King Biscuit Blues Festival celebrates its place in the American Music Legacy as a historic blues hotspot where everybody who’s somebody and anybody who’s nobody can come and feast at The Kings table.
But first, B.B. King…
Heading north to Helena we stopped for the night at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola Mississippi.
Though we arrived in the late afternoon on a Sunday when the museum was closed, the staff let us camp for the night in their parking lot as Harvest Hosts guests.
The Blue Biscuit Bar and Grill
As the Blues Gods would have it, directly across the road from B.B.’s eternal resting place in the countryside is the locally famous Blue Biscuit, an oasis of country cooking featuring the coldest beer and the biggest steak in Mississippi.
I offered Carmen my arm and we took a short evening stroll across the road.
The decor is an eclectic blend of honky-tonk and bone-picked southern aristocracy.
Due to bad planning on our part, the stage was quiet that night. But it was easy to imagine this roadhouse in full form.
Now, we don’t usually go for steak, but we ordered one for shucks-and-giggles.
It looked more like a whole roast than an perfectly cooked 20 oz bone-in Ribeye.
We did our best that night, but it took the two of us four days to clean that bone. Okay, maybe we like steak more than we thought we did.
What a gorgeous, quiet Autumn night. You could almost hear the fireflies switching their lights on and off as we walked the short distance home.
B.B. King Museum
The next morning (even though the museum was also closed on Mondays) the Director, Robert Terrell, kindly allowed us to enter the completely empty building. We had the place to ourselves. Just me, Carmen and B.B. (Riley) King grooving on The Life of Riley.
The man. The times. The music. The value of King’s life’s work is incalculable as a self-made artist, business man, philanthropist, activist and peacemaker.
King is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, and the indisputable “King of the Blues.”
AllMusic recognized B.B. King as “the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century.”
King appeared, on average, at more than 200 concerts a year into his 70s. In 1956 alone, he appeared at more than 300 concerts.
His 1969 recording “The Thrill Is Gone” won him the first of 15 Grammy Awards.
He died in 2015 from complications of diabetes and is buried at the museum.
After a two hour tour, we set out for Helena and by noontime we’d crossed The Great Mississippi River into Arkansas for the …
King Biscuit Blues Festival
Blues musicians from all over the world come to study the art form.
The festival features more than 70 performers on 6 stages.
Headliners
The headliners gave it their all.
We didn’t actually see the late-night headliners but we could hear their tunes through the trees at the campground where we turned in early.
Music Everywhere
In addition to the international musicians on the main stage, five smaller stages provide the most amazing immersive Blues experiences.
Every morning we’d claim a spot with our portable chairs on the levee tracks …
Then follow our noses to find a good bite and return to the tracks to dine while watching the main stage show …
As the early Autumn sun warmed we’d walk down Cherry street, visiting other stages …
and shop for artisan crafts, clothing and refreshments while meeting the locals.
Downtown Helena is a poor community, but proceeds from the Blues Festival is being used for preservation and revitalization.
The Delta Cultural Center is dedicated to the music history of the Arkansas Delta and still broadcasts the legendary King Biscuit Time radio show Monday through Friday, from 12:15 pm to 12:45 pm.
Delta Dirt Distillery is a cool retreat from the street, serving refreshing icy adult beverages.
The family-owned, craft distillery is located in the Arkansas Delta.
Delta Dirt farms their own produce and grains in the same community where the authentic spirits are distilled.
Camping
We dry camped in the Helena Fire Corp Camping Tent City, a fund-raiser within walking distance to the shores of the Mississippi River.
From Beauty’s doorstep …
it is only a 5-minute walk along a lighted and paved path to the festival.
The campground formed a friendly community – everyone looking out for each other and celebrating the beautiful nights beneath the stars.
Blues brings it all together
Food
Fireworks
Emotion
Emotional food
and emotional music!
The King Biscuit Blues Festival is a spa treatment for the heart and soul.
The beautiful rubble of the cotton empire is the ideal podium to assure us that – no matter what the future brings – dance, song, food and community will carry us through.
All Hail The Good King Biscuit!
If interested, here is our review of another wonderful Blues Festival, the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
If you want to see the exact route we travel, click here.
*photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) were taken and copyrighted by Living In Beauty.
Follow “Living In Beauty” via Email
Enter your email address and receive notifications of new posts by email, about once or twice a month. We will not sell or share your email address, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
I have heard of this festival, but as of yet not made plans to attend. Thank you for sharing. After reading your experience I will put it on my bucket list. I see they have managed to book some of the truly modern Blues greats at past festivals. Impressive!
John, happy to hear you are considering attending this amazing festival. We consider it one of our favorite events we have ever experienced. Let us know if about it if you do go. Jim
The best, most accommodating people on earth. Headed to Juke Joint in just 3 weeks and our 1st time to King Biscuit October 2025. Don’t know why we haven’t been to Helena before. Thank you for this article. Blues is my happy place and The Blue Biscuit, Trish Berry and Robert Terrell are the best
Imelda, we totally agree! The folks we camped with and those who attended the festival were wonderful to hang around with. Just delightful! We absolutely loved our experience at the Juke Joint Festival in Clarskdale, so we are sure you will too! And yes, the Blue Biscuit was such fun and Robert Terrell from the B.B. King museum was so considerate to us. Thank you for following LIB. Jim
Looks like you two had a lot of fun! Keep it up! We love following your adventures. Martha and Mike
Martha and Mike, yep!!!! We had a BLAST!!!! Thank you for following Living in Beauty! Jim
I am not really a blues fan, but this event does sound like a lot of fun. Glad you shared.
Becky, we like a lot of different music. But there is something about the Blues that makes it special. Maybe it’s the emotion put into the delivery. Maybe it is the words that can tear your heart in two. Maybe it’s both. There is nothing quite like sitting in front of a Blues musician and taking it all in. Jim
Found the post highly entertaining and not the least bit objectionable.. Not planning on deleting your —yet.
The thing is if it weren’t for food, drink, music and each other’s company there really is nothing you’ve got going for you
So I was worried that you camped out on the railroad tracks. Kept thinking about those markets in Asia that are literally on the tracks and they have to scurry away as the train comes. Hopefully you all (or y’all as some say) listen for the train whistle. So if you leave to get food do you take turns or just leave your stuff and “rely on the kindness of strangers” to not abscond with your stuff Thanks for the snippet of Blues music. Wish it were longer. Not a bit surprised your charmed your way into the museum on their day off. And when I say “you charmed” of course I mean Carmen. Loved the steak !!! Think I’ll head on over to Harvest Ranch market and get a couple of Rib Eyes just for me and the missus. Going to the Wine Pairing dinner again tomorrow with Bob and Karl. Next time in town we need to go. How about on the 31st of May ?!? We are unique in the USA today — rain !! Having some London Fog tea in front of the fire with a good book, two cats and Gregorian chants in the background. It doesn’t suck to be us.
Until our roads cross again, we remain,
Obediently yours
Funniest Man and Cutest Italian Chick
Jim, thank you and glad you enjoyed this one and are not planning to delete our — yet. 🤪 Those rail road tracks look to us like they haven’t been used since the middle of the last century. No chance of a train appearing on them any time soon. We never once worked about our chairs being stolen. Everyone there was pleasant there for fun. Great crowd. Sorry to hear about the rain. Here in Las Vegas, it is sunny and in the mid 70s. Beautiful day! We don’t gamble, but we plan to see some fun shows. See you all in late May. Jim
Glad to see you are still traveling and having a good time. I enjoyed reading about this festival. Great photos. Thanks!
Mark, happy to hear you enjoyed it! Jim
What an incredible – and fully immersive – music experience. It looks like so much fun. And good music and good food. That Bloody Mary made my mouth water!
Liesbet, as always I enjoy seeing your name come up. This festival was quite an amazing sensory experience. The music and food plus great people to hang out with made it a delightful time. And yes… that Bloody Mary was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Jim
As always, another great vlog from the expert creators. I know this took a lot of time to put together. Thank you!
Pete, glad to hear you enjoyed it. For us, it was an amazing experience. Thank you for following Living in Beauty. Jim
What a great post. We have this one on our list!
Judy, great to hear from you! We know you and Mike will not be disappointed. Hope our paths cross at some point again down the road. Stay safe out there! Jim
We put this on our ‘wish’ list. Thank you!
Marvin, glad we could help! Jim
Lovely post about a great time! I attended the New Orleans Jazz Festival for many years before Covid; but it has become a 2 week crowd with so many stages and people and not-always-jazz music that I have not returned. The increasing ticket prices have also kept me away. I’m glad to learn about the King Biscuit Blues Festival and will have to check it out in detail. Thanks!
Susan, wonderful to hear from you again! While we have been to New Orleans several times and gone to many concerts, we haven’t been there during the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Sorry to hear it is not what it used to be. We have tell you for sure the King Biscuit Blues Festival is a HOOT!!!! Stay safe out there and happy travels! Jim
This was an awesome experience! Out of the world music, friendliest folks from all over the world. Can’t wait for October…when do tickets go on sale?
Pam, we agree, it was an awesome experience. We are not sure when the tickets for 2025 go on sale, but here is the link for you to check every so often for the latest information: https://kingbiscuitfestival.com/tickets/. Jim
Grew up listening to the King Biscuit Flower Hour on Sunday Nights. (1973-1993). Thought they might be connected to Radio Time show.
No. It was a combination of wording designed to use the popularity of the original program (Blues) with the Hippy sounding Flower Power phrase-according to Wikipedia.
Still had great introductions to rock bands not heard in mainstream radio of the time.
And here all these years I thought it was King Biscuit Flour Hour-after a biscuit flour!
Thanks for your continued posts of bucket list worthy destinations that I’ll soon be able to follow. Just turned 60. Planning my leap.
Dean, thank you for the story about the other radio show with the similar name. I checked on Wikipedia and found this reference to the King Biscuit Time Radio Show. Glad you have found value in our blog posts. We find it hard to believe that this July we will start our 10th year traveling full-time. Congratulations on your decision to travel full-time soon. Maybe our paths will cross on the road. If you have any questions about “planning your leap” please reach out to us. Stay safe out there! Jim
Amazing adventures and a lovely way to share them! Thank you so much for sharing your inspirational voyages full of wonder. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this blog post about this amazing blues festival. Thank you for following Living in Beauty. Jim