JACKSON, ma’am. — Mississippi’s capital has been designated to host the National Folk Festival from 2025 through 2027.
The free, three-day festival will be held the second week of November in downtown Jackson each of those years and will feature music, art, dance and food from cultures across the country and around the world, The Clarion Ledger reported . .
“As we aspired to be the selected city for the National Folk Festival, part of our job and part of our efforts to entice the selection of the city of Jackson was to make clear where we have roots in the creation of blues and jazz and genres like gospel music, that this is an opportunity for American music to come home to Mississippi,” Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at a news conference Tuesday. “We want to make it clear that this National Folk Festival is the National Folk Festival of Mississippi, and not just the city of Jackson.”
Jackson beat out 42 other cities vying to host the event. It is estimated that the festival will attract 60,000 visitors in its first year and 100,000 each year thereafter, Lumumba said. It is also estimated to have an impact of $60 million over the festival’s three-year residency, officials said.
The National Council for Traditional Arts, which founded the festival, said the event first started in 1934 and is “the oldest multicultural traditional arts festival in the country, and has been produced by the NCTA since its inception.”
The city did not provide details on where in downtown Jackson the outdoor event will be held.
After the three years of the National Folk Festival in Jackson, the plan is to host a locally produced Jackson festival in subsequent years.
“We’ve seen how the festival can drive long-term economic impact, downtown revitalization and a real sense of community building,” said Blaine Waide, executive director of the National Council for Traditional Arts.
According to the NCTA website, the traveling festival is produced in collaboration with communities across the country. So far, it has been presented in nearly 30 cities, with some cities, like St. Louis, hosting it multiple times, the site said. The last festival was the 81st and was held in Salisbury, Maryland in 2022, according to the website.