NAPLES – The seventh annual Maine Blues Fest, begun by locals Michael Bray and Kevin Kimball, is set for this weekend in Naples.

This year’s edition features 40 acts playing at 13 venues, a record for the weekend music festival.

Music lovers can get their motor running starting Friday night and enjoy the tunes on land and even in the water thanks to “Blues Cruises” aboard the Songo River Queen II.

According to event spokeswoman Deb Dunuski, a highlight of this year’s event will be 11-year-old Justin Lindsay of Scarborough, whom Dunuski said “decided he wanted to learn slide guitar, so he is now a protege of Denny Breau, one of Maine’s best. Denny is his teacher, so he will be on stage with Denny during his set on Saturday.”

After playing the Village Green with Breau, Lindsay will also be a special guest at the All-Star Blues Jam at Bray’s Brew Pub on Saturday night.

This year features mostly the same bands that come every year, but Friday night and Sunday night offerings have been slightly boosted.

“It’s about same as last year,” said Dunuski, who is also the lead singer for Blue Steel Express. “We have roughly 40 acts over a three-day period. We’ve increased our Friday night and definitely increased our Sunday as far as the amount of acts performing and the number of venues though.”

On Friday night, a total of 10 acts perform at venues and restaurants throughout town, as well as the Songo River Queen, which has added a Blues Cruise and one act dockside. On Sunday, Dunuski said, the Queen has gone from hosting one Blues Cruise to two. And on Saturday, it’s doing three Blues Cruises.

“Demand is up. In past years, they’ve been at capacity for each cruise,” Dunuski said.

When the organizers say it’s the Maine Blues Fest, they’re not joking.

“Everybody is from Maine,” Dunuski says. “We only do Maine musicians. It’s a belief we have.”

She calls the Blues Fest an “homage” to the players themselves, and every venue is considered a “main stage.”

“These are the folks who are out performing every weekend keeping the blues alive. And this festival is more of an homage to them because they are the ones slugging it out every weekend in the bars. And this makes every single musician a headliner. We don’t have a main stage because we consider all these venues main stages,” she said.

The festival also is an economic driver for Naples, which sees heavy tourism in July and August.

“The merchants and the hotel people and the campgrounds see their business spike during this weekend. This makes up for the lag between Memorial Day and July 4,” Dunuski said.

The Juke Joint Devils play a set at the Tail ‘O the Lake Lobster Company during the 2011 Maine Blues Festival.