BILLINGS - The Magic City Blues Festival is ending its 22-year run in Billings.
The founder of the annual music festival, Pam Goodridge, wrote on the event's Facebook page that Yellowstone County commissioners told her the event could not be held at MetraPark in 2024, its home for the past two years.
She said commissioners told her they couldn't hold the event there because her husband Tim Goodridge, a fellow co-founder of Magic City Blues, works at MetraPark. Goodridge was hired by the county to work at MetraPark in 2020 and served as interim general manager before the permanent general manager, Stoney Field, was hired in 2023.
Yellowstone County commissioners were not immediately available for comment Wednesday night.
Magic City Blues has had multiple venues over the including, including South Park and its longtime home on Montana Avenue before moving to MetraPark in 2021. The summer festival has drawn big names over the years, including Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2022, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Ziggy Marley, John Fogerty and the Steve Miller Band.
The event was typically held in August.
Pam Goodridge said her family is planning a new event, called Yee-Haw Hee-Haw Western Days, but she provided no other details.
