Around 3,000 fans of the blues legend gathered at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center for the music event, which marked the first of its kind without King in attendance.

The museum's executive director Dion Brown acknowledged that the festival is bittersweet since King died just over a week prior to the event.

Brown tells local newspaper the Jackson Clarion Ledger, "There is a sadness, but at the same time, this is a celebration. You get to live to be 89 and live the life he lived - it's somber, but I've felt the energy all week."

Revellers took in performances by blues artists such as Marquise Knox, Jimmy Holmes, The North Mississippi Allstars, and the Lil Ray Neal Band.

The yearly festival, which raises funds to benefit King's hometown, bookended a weekend-long celebration of King's life - on Friday (23May15), King's family held a public memorial in Las Vegas, where he died on 14 May (15), as well as a free gospel and blues festival at the Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas.

On Saturday (23May15), family and friends, including musicians Richie Sambora and Carlos Santana, attended a private memorial service in Sin City at the Palm Mortuary chapel

On Wednesday (27May15), King's coffin will feature in a procession on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee to mark where he found fame, before his remains are flown to Indianola for a public viewing on Friday (29May15) ahead of his burial on Saturday (30May15).