2023 TBS Blues Challenge

The Triangle Blues Society Blues Challenge is a regional competition to select acts who will represent TBS at the Blues Foundation’s next 39th International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.

As many as 266 acts from around the world converge on Beale Street next January to perform as the music industry searches for new talent, with the chance to win recognition and prizes that include major festival performances and more.

Categories include solo, duo and bands playing any and all kinds of blues (and nothing BUT the blues, please!). At least half of any performing band (or one, if a band of three), and at least one from a solo or duo act, must be legal residents of North Carolina as of October 8, 2023. At least one member of the act must be a member of the Triangle Blues Society.

If you are under 18 years of age, you may also participate in our Youth Category. Throughout the duration of the IBC, excluding Finals which are held at the Orpheum Theatre, Youth Showcases are in various clubs on Beale Street. (TBS Youth Challenge winners are responsible for their own funding efforts.)

More than half (at least 51%) of any performing group must be legal residents of North Carolina and members of the Triangle Blues Society as of July 24, 2018.

Triangle Blues Society (TBS), a 501 (c3) organization, is an all-volunteer non-profit organization working together to support, promote, and grow blues music in the Raleigh-Durham Chapel Hill North Carolina area. TBS has been an affiliate of the Blues Foundation since 1996.