People danced, clapped, and jammed to the blues as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Onset Blues Festival at the Onset Band Shell on Saturday, August 4.

"Blues is a feeling," said performer and Wareham resident Gil Correia, reading from a tattoo extending from his wrist to his thumb. "You don't have to be white, black, red, yellow. You just got to feel it."

The Onset Bay Association coordinates the festival and got a big push this year from sponsor Mayflower Bank.

Locally- and nationally-known performers in the festival included Ricky "King" Russell and The Cadillac Horns, Jerry Portnoy, Sean Chambers, Diane Blue, A Ton of Blues, The Gil Correia Band, and Willie J. Laws.

"It used to be a free concert. People would come and play. And then we got to be big, and all the bands got big, and it started to get big in the area," said Dianne Vance, chairwoman of the Onset Bay Association's Blues Committee.

Vance estimated that upwards of 1,000 people came to this year's festival.

"It's an all-day event. For 20 bucks, you can't go wrong," she said.

Members of the audience agreed.

"The groups are all great. The people are all friendly," said South Weymouth resident Jimmy Contrino, who has also seen Diane Blue perform multiple times on Cape Cod. "I hope they have [the festival] forever and ever."

Onset summer resident Reebee Garofalo, a blues musician and writer, said that making it twenty years was a big credit to the festival.

"I do a lot of work in the music business, and festivals come and go. The fact that they can keep this going for 20 years is fantastic," he said. "I think it speaks to a very supportive climate in the town."

The festival is one of the longest running festivals in New England, said Correira.

Correia has been living in Wareham for 19 years and started helping with the event 16 years ago. Now, in addition to being a hometown local who just released his first album, he is emcee of the event and helps make the festival a reality.

"He's our hometown kid, and he's made himself into a big name. We're just lucky to have him come back this year [to] help us," said Vance.

Blues musicians plucked at the audience's heartstrings as they rocked the electric guitar and received nods of understanding as they sang about how their lovers didn't love them anymore.

"That guy is giving us his soul right now. That's a whole different story," said Correia as he motioned in the direction of performer Ricky "King" Russell.

"All music is emotion," Correia explained, "But the blues really hits the chord, the gut, the soul."