The Cahors Blues Festival, founded in 1982, is the oldest blues festival in France. Its founder was Gerard Tertre, who passed away in 2002. Known throughout Europe, this July festival has attracted several thousand people to each of its evening main-stage concerts. It has introduced to the public many little-known or unknown artists through its talent competition, and it continues to pursue its goal of promoting Delta blues and blues music in general. In 2006 Robert Mauries joined the festival as president and CEO and continued with Tertre’s vision. Now more than 20,000 people attend the festival each year. Its dozen free afternoon concerts and those on the caf terraces give Cahors the look of a town in the Mississippi Delta. The main-stage concerts welcome the most talented Delta bluesmen and Memphis artists. In 2014 Cahors was granted a Mississippi Blues Trail marker, the second in Europe. Johnny Winter’s last performance was on the Cahors Blues Stage in 2014, and the next year Mauries had a street in Cahors named in memory of Johnny Winter. In February 2015 the European Blues Union recognized Mauries for the Cahors Blues Festival with the Behind the Stage European Award.
