The 5th Annual Congressional Blues Festival has been announced, and will take place on Wednesday, April 23 at the Kennedy Center‘s South Plaza. This year’s festival lineup includes the stellar Robert Cray (pictured), Elvin Bishop, Mudcat, the duo of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, and others. The festival is a free event, but tickets are limited and are available through a lottery system on the festival’s website. Lottery registration begins Monday, March 10 at 8 a.m.

The festival is the work of Music Maker Relief Foundation, an organization formed to help provide grants and other forms of assistance to struggling musicians who are preserving the tradition of American roots music. As part of this effort, Music Maker mounts this concert to give exposure to these musicians, and also to lobby policy makers on the importance of preserving this musical heritage. Though there are no official ties between Congress and the festival, its host committee is a bipartisan group with members from both houses, many of whom will be in attendance.

This concert is a must for music lovers of all stripes. Last year’s event was nothing short of fantastic, but unfortunately, no word yet on whether and tickets to the show will also include free food and drink. But really, if the music is half as good as it was last year, it won’t matter.

Image from Robert Cray’s MySpace page