The roots of this three-day festival are found in the performances of Lary Coriel, Mick Taylor & Star Blues Band and others. The public’s interest in these programmes, expressed in their acceptance and support, led to creating its own conception of this type of music life in Skopje, while the concentration of the concerts in one particular period led to creating a separate manifestation.

Thus, a new music festival occurred in Macedonia in 1996, the Blues and Soul Festival, which is traditionally held in the period between 1 and 7 July.

The foreign guests: Candy Dulfer & Funky Stuff, Joao Bosko, Billy Cobham Group and Lucky Peterson Blues Band were the performers at the first festival in 1996. In the following years there were the performances of The Temptations, Tolo Marton Trio, Blues Wire, Phil Guy, Nick & The Backbone, Blues Company, Vasil Hadimanov Band, Michael Hill’s Blues Mob, M-r Lucky and Sen-Sa-Shun Band, Louisiana Red, Todd Sharpville Band, Mick Taylor, Kimbiza, Rod Barthed Band, Tony Vega Band, Erick Sardinas, Juke Joint Express, Blues Cousins, Alvin Youngblood Hart’s, Muscle Theory, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Mama’s Pit, Nico Wayne Toussaint and others.