2025 Winter Music Festival @ Milwaukie Elks Lodge | 2 Stages, 6 Bands

From our sponsors:
2025 Winter Music Festival
March 8, 2025
3:30pm | 21+ | $45
Purchase Tickets: winterbluesfest.net

Milwaukie Elks Lodge
13121 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Oak Grove, OR 97222

As the new year gets off to a start, people are making their resolutions. If one of them is to go to more festivals, you won’t have to wait until summer to achieve that. The Winter Music Festival will be celebrating its 14th season of bringing the best in local and national talent earlier in the year.

The popular annual event had its humble beginning over a kitchen table with a couple friends and a few glasses of wine during a particularly cold winter. Festival founder and coordinator LeeAnn Gibbons and her music loving BFFs found themselves commiserating about the lack of music festivals during winter. “Why do we always have to wait until summer?”, she questioned. “Let’s do something about it!”, she exclaimed and the music festival in the off-season was born. Every year since then the audiences and its popularity have grown. This is in part to the event’s ability to deliver a bigger and better show each time. This year will be no different with chart topping bands and fan favorites that offer an array of talent from blues, rock to pop.

Johnny Wheels and The Swamp Donkeys have been making fans all over the northwest and beyond with their gritty originals, stellar songwriting and talented musicians. Their talent and take on blues took them all the way to Memphis and garnered them followers from around the world when they made the finals at the renowned International Blues Challenge representing Portland. Lead singer and harmonica player Johnny is a multi-award Muddy winner including for best harmonica. This is inspirational due to the fact that his diaphragm capacity was affected by an accident as a child that paralyzed him from the waist down. He is himself inspired by the soul of the Pacific Northwest and his bandmates who hail from Oregon, Texas and California. The balding of their diverse musical backgrounds make this band a repeat favorite.

Myrtle Brown is a favorite that has been delighting audiences for years with her soulful performances. Her band The Executive Groove offers R&B Classics, Smooth Jazz, Funk and Latin Rhythms.

Local legend Lloyd Jones is a master of the soulful understatement, the raw growl, and the groove. From his roots in muddy Oregon soil, he’s forged a 30-plus-year career as an impassioned singer and fierce guitar slinger, a clever and soulful songwriter, a bandleader, record producer, and an almost strident torchbearer for all that’s true and good about America’s music.

Award winning multi-instrumentalist Hank Shreve hails from blues rich Eugene infamous for being the place where John Belishi garnered inspiration for the Blues Brothers while filming Animal House. Hank began playing harmonica at the age of 8 and has established himself as a major harmonica talent on the blues scene in and outside the Pacific Northwest.

The Revival Brothers Band is made up of the most talented musicians to call the northwest home including members that have played with War and other notable greats. Their tribute showcases distinctive sounds of southern rock mixed with blues and honors the iconic Allman Brothers Band.

The Winter Blues Festival has helped many charities throughout the years including C.H.A.P. (Children’s Healing Arts Project), the Oregon Food Bank and United By Music. Proceeds from raffle and silent auction items from jewelry, cooking, wine, picnic and garden baskets this year will help Childrens and Veterans Charities. WMF also enjoys support from the local business and music communities and is held at the Milwaukie Elks Lodge & Ballroom. The venue offers two stages, large dance floors, a full service bar and food menu. Convenient location across the street from the MAX Orange line with a large parking lot. It is easily accessible from the 205 freeway and is less than 20 minutes from the Portland downtown area via McLoughlin/99E.