About 65 locals and out-of-towners rang in 2009 at the Happy Blues Year event at the BB Club, the event’s chief organizer said Monday.

Touted as a new attraction for the Vicksburg social scene during the season, the $50 per ticket event put on by the Vicksburg Blues Society — highlighted by bluesman Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry’s performance — also was aimed at promoting Vicksburg’s connection to blues.

“Considering we planned the event at the 11th hour, it was wonderful,” VBS president Shirley Waring said.

Plans call for an annual party along the same theme, she said. Set-up costs were about $3,000, Waring said, so the event broke even. Another blues-themed party is in the works for Halloween, she said.

Future endeavors by the society to promote the blues in Vicksburg include helping pay for a new sign at LD’s Kitchen on Mulberry Street, where blues acts have taken the stage semiweekly during the past year.

Waring, who assumed leadership of the VBS last year, hopes the group can help grow blues awareness and its use in tourism, as was the case in June when the society and downtown music venues promoted a Blues Weekend headlined by blues legend B.B. King’s concert.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.