How Beale Street Inspired a Festival

July 27th, 2026

Hector Anchondo was walking down Beale Street in Memphis, weaving past blues clubs with their doors propped open so the music could spill onto the sidewalk, when he had a realization that had nothing to do with the music he’d come to hear.

“I noticed that Beale Street looked exactly like the Old Market in Omaha,” Anchondo said. “So it was an easy connection to make — the Old Market needs to have a blues festival, because it would fit perfect.”

Omaha blues musician Hector Anchondo poses with his guitar. Anchondo founded the In the Market for Blues festival after a visit to Beale Street in Memphis inspired him to bring a similar blues experience to Omaha. (Photo courtesy of Hector Anchondo.)

That trip to Memphis, in 2015, was for the International Blues Challenge — Anchondo had qualified the year before by winning the Nebraska Blues Challenge. He’d been playing guitar since he was sixteen, largely self-taught through books and listening, with a formative stretch of lessons from Brad Thompson, a longtime jazz instructor at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Anchondo, who was born in Omaha and grew up in Missouri before moving back to Nebraska in 1999, says he’s always gravitated toward the improvisational overlap between jazz and blues.

An idea, and a partner who knew how to build it

Back home, Anchondo brought the Beale Street idea to a friend, Emily Cox, who had exactly the skill set he didn’t: running festivals. Together, they built the first “In the Market for Blues” in 2015.

Around that same period, Anchondo learned something about Omaha that made the idea feel less like a hunch and more like restoring something that had gone quiet.

“Omaha had a booking agency hub for all the jazz greats — Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis,” Anchondo said. “Why isn’t Omaha wearing that history more on its sleeve?”

A tour of North Omaha’s jazz history reinforced the point. Anchondo says part of what drew him to the festival concept was the hope that it could help connect parts of the city that don’t always intersect — bringing in longtime blues fans alongside people discovering the genre for the first time.

Eleven years, and still growing

The festival is now in its 11th year, organized today by the Blues Society of Omaha. Anchondo, who was closely involved in planning during the festival’s early years, says he’s stepped back from the organizing side as his own touring schedule grew, but still supports the event however he can.

“It’s growing — you can see it grow,” Anchondo said of the festival’s evolution. “It’s cool to be part of it and to see the new things take shape, but it’s all their hard work.”

The format has expanded into a genuine crawl: multiple simultaneous shows spread across the Old Market, the Capitol District, and the Holland Center, with the Old Market serving as the main hub. Anchondo says that structure is part of the draw.

“You get to create your own adventure with the schedule,” he said. “You might catch thirty minutes of one band, but have to head out before they’re done to catch the last hour of another band you’re wanting to see.”

What to expect this year

This year’s festival runs Friday through Sunday, with most of the action concentrated on Saturday, August 1st. Venues expected to host performances include Harney Street Tavern, the Dubliner Pub, T. Henry’s, Havana Garage, Mr. Toad, Nosh, the Jewel on Capitol, the Performance Pavilion at the Jean Leahy Mall, and Mammel Hall at the Tenaska Center. Shows historically run from around noon until 10 or 11 p.m., closing out with late-night jam sessions.

This year’s lineup includes headliner the Texas Head Hunters and Chicago’s Little Ed and the Blues Imperials, known for frontman Little Ed’s towering, tasseled hat and a stage presence Anchondo remembers from an old Conan O’Brien appearance. Anchondo will perform his own set during the day, then join a blues-guitar supergroup billed as Kings of Blues later that night.

“It’s going to be a really guitar-heavy event,” Anchondo said. “Any folks that like a lot of guitar — that’s the one they’re going to want to catch.”

If you go

“In the Market for Blues” runs Friday through Sunday, with the main day of performances Saturday, August 1st, across venues in the Old Market, Capitol District, and Holland Center. Full lineup, schedule, and venue details are available through the Blues Society of Omaha’s website and Facebook page.