Blues lovers rejoice.

The annual three-day Blast Furnace Blues Festival returns March 27 - 29 to ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.

Featured performers include Shemekia Copeland, Tommy Castro, Heritage Blues Orchestra and John Németh & the Bo-Keys.

Along with concerts, workshops, a new addition to the festival for professional and aspiring blues musicians, begin March 26.

Another new activity this year is a Sunday morning blues brunch, a separately-ticketed event that includes a performance by the BC Combo. A VIP pass is available that includes the brunch, all festival programming andh meet and greets with headlining artists.

Throughout the festival, all three floors of the ArtsqQuest Center offer programming.

Booking and planning for the Blast Furnace Blues Festival began last summer.

"We think it's just nice as a late winter-early spring event to get people out. They've been stuck in the house all winter with the poor weather and stuff. And now they are ready to get out and enjoy a weekend of music at a cool venue like SteelStacks," says Patrick Brogan, ArtsQuest senior vice president of programming.

Brogan explains the process of selecting artists for the festival:

"We try to get some of the top names of the blues world each year. For example, this year John Németh and the Bo-keys collaborated for an album this past year and it's up for six Blues Music Awards, which is the most nominations any album got for the Blues Music Awards this year.

"We are the first festival to be having the collaboration show between John Németh and the Bo-Keys.

"Tommy Castro and the Painkillers have a new album out and Shamekia Copeland is really the queen of the blues right now.

"These are some of the top acts touring nationally and internationally in the blues music world."

Blast Furnace Blues also places local blues performers front and center.

"That's one of things we like most about the blues festival, is how many of our local and regional blues artists really shine and stand out right alongside these national and international acts.

"On Friday night, we've got basically an all-local line-up with Jim Supra and some other top Lehigh Valley projects, through the weekend. Craig Thatcher is the headliner in the Blast Furnace Room on Sunday night. We've got six or seven regional bands alongside about a dozen national names.

"We also try to get a number of special projects, like the Jon Németh and the Bo-Keys collaboration. The Heritage Blues Orchestra is a special project that has been out now for a year or two. We kind of differentiate our show with them [Heritage Blues] a little bit by bringing in the whole orchestra, which includes a horn section and a full nice piece group versus the quartet or quintet, which is what audiences have seen so far.

"The Freddy King reunion band is such, a special project. A reunion of some of the players of Freddy King's band playing in his honor and remembrance and Junior Boy Jones being the guitarist in that group stepping in to take Freddy King's role," says Brogan.

"It's a great weekend and we hope audiences turn out and support the event. We add new things each year to keep audiences interested. We are always looking to tweak it a little bit to make it even better and we hope it has a long future here."