The 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 and culture, which historically draws upwards of 150,000 attendees by year three, along with an economic impact ranging from approximately $15-30 million a year.
Produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the National Folk Festival has been presented in 28 cities across the country—from Richmond, VA, and Butte, MT, to Lowell, MA, and St. Louis, MO—since its inception in 1934.
This is the first time in the festival’s long history that it has been presented in Mississippi—often considered the birthplace of America’s music—as well as the Deep South.