This east-end fest is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, a remarkable feat for such a large-scale free event. It has survived with the help of programs built around broad-based, celebratory music, and by expanding along the Beach’s commercial strip. This year it has spread even further to include an opening weekend of concerts in Woodbine Park. Gatineau-based guitarist-singer-songwriter Roxanne Potvin is saturated in the blues, drawing on influences from guitarist Freddie King, singer Dinah Washington and songwriter John Hiatt, July 18; while 14-year-old Maryland pianist Matt Wigler plays a mix of standards, blues, barrelhouse and ragtime, July 19. Johnny Rawls grew up in Mississippi, Lou Pride in Chicago, but both senior soul singers have their roots in the R&B of the 1950s and ’60s, and a style distilled from blues and gospel. July 20. Woodbine Park, Lake Shore Blvd. E. and Coxwell Ave. StreetFest provides a heterodox soundscape for Queen East, which is closed to traffic for three evenings. Bands appear on patios, street corners and even church steps; the mood is festive, the music ranging from Dixie­land to Latin, with a collection of electric blues bands and big swing bands thrown in. July 24 to 26. Queen St. E., from Woodbine Ave. to Beech Ave. The festival also includes free weekend afternoon performances—focused on the blues—at the Alex Christie Bandshell in Kew Gardens. The most original jazz group of the festival is likely The Sicilian Jazz Project, led by Michael Occhipinti, which draws on the rich musical heritage of the guitarist’s ancestral home and adds improvisatory elements. Tad Robinson is a soulful singer with a sweetly soaring falsetto who has taken up the blues where Little Milton left them in the mid-’60s, infusing the idiom with a smooth Stax-Volt polish; he has a superb guitarist in Alex Schultz. The revue Jamaica to Toronto, featuring singers Jay Douglas and the Mighty Pope, puts as much emphasis on U.S.-derived R&B as it does on Caribbean genres. July 26. Bassist Brandi Disterheft is far more than a background figure, having developed a distinctive band style that can personalize contemporary pop as well as traditional jazz fare. Bill King, the fest’s artistic director, leads his Rhythm Express along with the Young Divas, a collection of singers who are a testament to King’s abilities as a talent scout. Tab Benoit creates blues with rhythmic drive, a sting in his guitar and grit in his voice. July 27.—Stuart Broomer