No Blues Brothers Con at Old Joliet Prison this year

There will be no Blues Brothers Con at the Old Joliet Prison this year.

The blues concert held in 2022 and 2024 featured Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi with the Blues Brothers band each year as the headline act, drawing thousands of fans from around the country and the world while providing the Old Joliet Prison with its major fundraiser.

Instead, the Joliet Area Historical Museum (JAHM) plans to host a “Blues Brothers Screening” in October, presumably a showing of the movie at the prison to celebrate the 45th anniversary of its release in 1980.

Museum Chief Executive Officer Greg Peerbolte confirmed on Thursday that the museum, which manages the prison, would not hold a Blues Brothers Con.

Peerbolte in an email said a screening event planned for October “will not be a full-scale concert this time around, mainly due to preparations for a nationwide U.S. Route 66 Centennial event JAHM is hosting in early 2026.”

He did not provide specifics about those plans.

Peerbolte said the museum will issue a news release in the coming days to outline its plans for the screening in October and the Route 66 Centennial event next year.

The 100th anniversary year of old Route 66 is 2026, and Joliet has been making preparations to make itself an attraction for tourists who travel the historic highway’s path. The city’s location along Route 66 also has drawn travelers from around the country and the world.

Blues Brothers Con, however, has been a special attraction in part because the Blues Brothers band performed in the prison that provided the setting for the opening scene of what has become a classic film.

The same setting provides a promising setting for a 45th anniversary showing of the “The Blues Brothers” movie.

Peerbolte did not say whether Aykroyd or others involved with the film would be at the screening event in October.

Formerly the Joliet Correctional Center, the museum was closed by the state in 2002. The city of Joliet now leases the prison property, and the museum oversees tours and events there.

Aykroyd, who co-starred in the movie with the late John Belushi, joined the band at Blues Brothers Con both years along with Belushi’s brother, Jim.

The two of them reprise the movie roles of Elwood and Jake Blues, although Jim Belushi goes by the name Zee Blues, with the band. Performances have become fewer, however.

There was talk at last year’s Blues Brothers Con that Aykroyd may not be back again, and Aykroyd made comments that at least suggested the possibility.

“This is a closing chapter of Blues Brothers history,” Ayrkoyd told the media last year as he referred to the recent death of Judy Belushi Pisano, the widow of John Belushi.

Belushi Pisano was instrumental in bringing the band to Joliet for both performances. She died in July 2024, a month before the band’s return to the Old Joliet Prison.

Blues Brothers Con was canceled in 2023 due to a strike at the time by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

It appeared unlikely as time passed this year that there would be a Blues Brothers Con in 2025.

The event, held in August and September during the two years it was staged, came with months of planning and marketing. The museum announced the date of Blues Brothers Con five months in advance of the event last year.