If you like blues, and I mean really good blues, you are going to love this event on Aug. 29. The main stage will feature the Bay Area Blues Extravaganza, starring Rene Solis & Lucky 13, Ron Thompson, Sista Monica, Gary Smith, Volker Stifler and Tia Carroll.

While you may not know them all by name, all are veterans of the San Francisco Blues Festival and have played with the likes of Joe Louis Walker, John Lee Hooker and Albert King. The KFOG 104.5 FM stage will feature Bay Area greats Luce, Music for Animals and Jesse Brewster. The Garden Stage will feature Ron Hacker and the Hacksaws, plus Sid Morris & Mick Kilgos, blues musicians you won’t believe until you see them perform.

The Bounty Hunter Rib Eatin’ Contest will start at 3 p.m. in Dwight Murray Plaza. Winemakers and grape growers alike, including Andy Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards, Tim Milos from Bounty Hunter Rare Wine & Provisions, Marco DiGiulio from Girard, Glenn Hugo from Hugo Family Cellars, Kevin Mills from Trinitas Cellars and Brian Brown from Emerson Brown and Round Pond will sit down elbow to elbow. At the sound of the starter’s gun, they will devour as many ribs as they can in a limited time. Winners will receive plaques and bragging rights for the rest of the year.

The brews? Twenty micro-brews, some of which are hard to come by. The barbeque? Let’s just say you might want to skip breakfast and come really hungry. Aug. 29 from 1 to 6 p.m. on First Street.

How sweet it is

Sweetie Pies entered the Napastille dessert contest at the Oxbow Public Market last month and won. The entry was a croquembuche — a tower of cream puffs dipped in caramel and finished with a cage of golden spun sugar.

Owner Toni Chiapetta said the best thing that ever happened to her (and the rest of the dessert-eating world) was getting fired from another job       15 years ago. She retreated to her Victorian home, with it’s too-small oven, and baked a cake. And another. And another still. Within a few years, it was time to take the plunge, and in September of 2000, Sweetie Pies became the first business to open in the Hatt Building. Sweetie Pies is open seven days a week. Enjoy a dessert for yourself, or ship one back home to the relatives. Give them another reason to wish they lived in Napa.

Another big thanks

Special events like Brews, Blues and BBQ are a lot of work. Somebody has to put up the barricades to close the streets, erect the stages, provide the musicians with sound, clean it all up at the end of the day, and do about a bazillion other things during the day. For years, that someone has been Stuart Atkinson and his crew from Upstage Productions. Next time you are enjoying a downtown event, you can thank Atkinson, in part, for your good time.

See you downtown!

Smith is the executive director of the Napa Downtown Association. He can be reached at 257-0322 or craig@napadowntown.com.