For almost a century, the National Folk Festival has traveled from city to city as one of the biggest stages for celebrating grassroots American culture.

This year, between November 13 and 15, the National Folk Festival gathers for a second year in Mississippi—the birthplace of America’s music—shining a national spotlight on the capital city of Jackson, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s Of the People: the Smithsonian Festival of Festivals. This year's event will bring together foodways, crafts, parades, and family-friendly music by traditional artists representing cultural communities from all across the nation. The goal: to celebrate the sights, sounds, and flavors that are quintessentially American.

First held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934, through the ambitious visions of founder Sarah Gertrude Knott, the National Folk Festival redefined folk festivals by corralling the kaleidoscopic facets of American experience into one large-scale celebration. 

Jackson beat out forty-two cities to host a three-year residency of the festival, which is produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA). Blaine Waide, the Executive Director of the NCTA, said that Jackson felt like the perfect fit. 

“You can't tell the story of the emergence of American popular music without talking about Mississippi…There's something for everyone: parades, storytelling, music, dance, food, crafts, marketplace…No matter who you are, there is something for you at the festival,” Waide said. 

Numerous recipients of the nation's highest honor for folk artists—National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellows—will be featured in the program, alongside close to three hundred artists, musicians, dancers, story tellers, and craftspeople across six stages. Among them will be the Savoy Family Cajun Band of Eunice, Louisiana.

“I think that the music will teach for itself…the lack of artifice in our presentation speaks of what makes Louisiana such a unique pocket of this great country,” said Ann Savoy, whose history with the festival stretches back fifty years. 

Local festival manager and Jackson native, Thabi Moyo, believes that the festival will generate lasting confidence in Jackon’s cultural ecosystem, foster civic pride, and build the city’s momentum as a cultural hub, laying the foundation for other festivals and infrastructure development to continue for decades. 

“It's meaningful to me because I know what it will mean on the other side of it,” Moyo said. “Jackson needs something like this.” 

Described as the "nucleus" between local artists and the NCTA, Moyo has worked with a network of people from across the state to present a completely free gathering in which cuisine, artisans, and performances all contribute to quash any preconceived notions, compliment the cultural community already established in Jackson, and leave visitors thinking about Mississippi in a new way. 

“You won't get this level of authenticity anywhere else in the world,” Moyo said. 

November 13–15 in Jackson, Mississippi. nationalfolkfestival.com