Get fired up for 12 hours of rapture as your ears and taste buds join in harmony at the Old Capitol Blues and BBQs. Downtown Springfield, Inc., and Illinois Central Blues Club cook up a smorgasbord of bliss as blues music and barbequed meat fit together, ah so perfectly, like peas imbedded in mashed potatoes.

The ever tasty outdoor gathering features more than 40 BBQ competitors and vendors serving ribs and more, both local and national blues musicians, the Blues Club Challenge and, new this year, children’s activities and entertainment in the afternoon.

At noon, hear solo and duo acts as they take the Illinois Central Blues Club stage on Washington Street with local band competition following in 30-minute intervals.

Winners represent the ICBC at the 2010 Blues Foundation International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn.

National acts rockin’ the north Capitol complex beginning at 3 p.m. are The Modern Sounds, Chicago favorites and a trio who play 30s, 40s and 50s music. They are followed by Carl “Sonny Leyland at 4:30 p.m., with Black Diamond Heavies, a band from Nashville, at 6 p.m. The influential blues guitarist Junior Watson dazzles at 8 p.m., while international sensation Toni Lynn Washington performs at 9 p.m. and Chicago’s Big James and the Chicago Playboys carry attendees into the night hours at 10 p.m.

The soirée is at Fifth and Washington streets. If you can’t see or hear the smoking party as you make your way downtown, that’s where to head. Admission is $5.