This large-scale free fest pulls double duty by offering up a broad sampling of celebratory music while turning the strip that runs along Queen Street east of Woodbine into a special attraction. Over the years, it has come to emphasize the blues and roots side more and more, and last year it added an opening weekend of concerts in Woodbine Park. Highlights include MONKEYJUNK, a superb blues trio from Ottawa that channels the emotional intensity of Chicago electric blues circa the 1950s, July 18; and LADY SON Y ARTICULO VEINTE, a powerhouse Latin jazz band that matches gritty horn solos with perpetual polyrhythms, July 19, Woodbine Park. A strip of Queen East is closed to traffic for three evenings for STREETFEST, a celebration featuring bands on patios, street corners and even church steps; the music ranges from Dixie-land to dance-funk. July 23 to 25. Queen Street East, from Woodbine Ave. to Beech Ave. The festival concludes with afternoon performances in Kew Gardens. DEANNA BOGART plays “blusion,” extending her raw-voiced songs into R&B and rock territory with her saxophone and piano. KELLYLEE EVANS, in contrast, is a more laid-back performer who adds pop and reggae rhythms to R&B-based smooth jazz, July 25. The fest’s artistic director, BILL KING, leads his RHYTHM EXPRESS, featuring the YOUNG DIVAS, a collection of youthful singers with different approaches to jazz singing. SHAKURA S’AIDA is a powerful blues singer, imbuing the idiom with its traditional passion and urgency in a style akin to Nina Simone and Koko Taylor. JUNIOR WATSON has used his biting electric guitar leads to support Charlie Musselwhite and in the service of Canned Heat; at the helm of his own band, he’s an enthusiastic presence whose guitar playing is the most memorable part of the show, July 26.—Stuart Broomer