The Mississippi Link Newswire,
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba announced Tuesday at a press conference by the City of Jackson and the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) that Jackson has been named the official host city for the 2025-2027 National Folk Festival. The press conference was held at the Mississippi Museum of Art, 280 South Lamar Street.
Jackson was among 42 cities nationwide that competed for the honor of hosting the nation’s preeminent traveling celebration of traditional arts and culture for a three-year stay in 2025, 2026 and 2027.
The First Lady of Jackson, Dr. Ebony Lumumba, also gave remarks. To provide a taste of what’s to come, several artists were on hand to perform, including Jackson’s own Bobby Rush, the Rising Stars Fife & Drum Band from Coldwater, MS and Max and Josh Baca from the nation’s premier conjunto tejano band, Los Texmaniacs. The festival will begin its three-year stay in Jackson in November of 2025.
The prestigious National Folk Festival is the nation’s longest-running traditional arts event, a free, three-day, outdoor multicultural celebration of music, dance and traditional arts. During its three-year residency, the National Folk Festival will draw over 330,000 visitors to downtown Jackson, generate over $60 million in long-term economic impacts for the city and the region, and lay the groundwork for a locally produced festival to continue after the National moves on to its next site.
Produced by the non-profit the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the National Folk Festival has been presented in nearly 30 cities across the country since its inception in 1934, from Richmond, VA, and Butte, MT, to Lowell, MA, and St. Louis, MO. The NCTA partners with communities across the nation to present the National Folk Festival, free to the public, for three years with the understanding that the local host community intends to continue its own festival once the National’s residency ends.
“On behalf of the City of Jackson, I want to express how excited and honored we are to host the National Folk Festival,” said Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. “We like to say that Mississippi is the birthplace of America’s music, and we’re bringing the festival home.”
The festival will bring as many as six stages of continuous music, including a dance pavilion, as well as traditional crafts, regional and culturally diverse foods, storytelling, parades and folklife demonstrations to downtown Jackson. It is committed to representing the artistic traditions of all Americans, from those generations old to more contemporary forms of expression. With many thousands in attendance each year, the National Folk Festival will become a major new signature arts event for the city.
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