Thabi Moyo broke into a grin, recalling dynamic blues music that coursed through the crowd as Diunna Greenleaf played at the recent Richmond Folk Festival in Virginia, and the way that one kid on the front row for the infectious Cuban rhythms of Son QBA got so blissfully lost in the music that Moyo was transported right along with him.

“I didn’t know these people,” she said of festival performers that also included a klezmer band and Hawaiian falsetto singers, “but I’ll never forget them.”

Moyo, local manager for the 82nd National Folk Festival, wants fellow Jacksonians and capital city tourists to grab and take away the same thrill, surprise and bliss when the free, three-day festival takes over downtown Jackson Friday through Sunday. 

The National Council for the Traditional Arts partners with host communities, in this case the city of Jackson, to produce the National Folk Festival around the country, and this is the first one in the Deep South. 

“It’s like the festival is coming home,” council Executive Director Blaine Waide said, noting Mississippi artists’ frequent presence at different festivals it produces, and the state’s impact on American music and musical history. “It’s a really appropriate place to have the festival.”

Jackson remains the host city for the 83rd and 84th National Folk Festivals in 2026 and 2027, laying the groundwork for a locally produced festival after the three-year National Council for the Traditional Arts residency ends. Ergon/Alliant is the presenting sponsor of the 82nd National Folk Festival.

Mississippi artists hold a vibrant role at this year’s festival as well, Those on the roster include Jackson blues icon Bobby Rush, Bentonia bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Greenville blues musician Keith Johnson, Clarksdale’s James “Super Chikan” Johnson, Bay Springs Southern soul artist Ms. Jody, singer/guitarist Vasti Jackson of Hattiesburg and even the Sonic Boom of the South.

“At our event, we’ll have, obviously, what’s near and dear to us, which is the blues and gospel,” Moyo said, “and you’ll hear some new things like go-go music out of D.C., you’ll hear Irish fiddling, you’ll hear so many different types of music presented from world-class musicians.”

The National Folk Festival celebrates traditional arts — the music, dance and crafts of many different communities and cultures that may have roots in farflung places, but call America home. The knowledge, skill and artistic expression are passed down informally, through families and in community. 

“They’re key to identity,” Waide said. “When people think about, ‘Who am I? What defines me?’ it’s often those traditional expressions that have been passed down across generations.

“Folk and traditional arts isn’t just banjo and fiddle music,” he said. It is that, but it encompasses much more. The tremendous sweep of cultural expression enlivening the festival in Jackson also includes zydeco, salsa dura, South Asian qawwali (sung poetry, a meditative form of Islam), cowboy and western, trío romántico, Korean pungmul, flamenco, Cabo Verdean (blend of African and Portuguese influences, familiar in New England), sacred steel gospel, klezmer, West African balafon and more.

“Absolutely amazing performers,” Waide pegged them. “People are going to come to this festival because they want to see Bobby Rush, or they’re going to come to see Ms. Jody or E.U., and they’re going to walk away, going, like, ‘Holy crap, I didn’t know Korean percussion and dance was so cool.’” Many of the artists perform multiple times over the three days.

The closest equivalent to the National Folk Festival is probably Jubilee! JAM, the large-scale, ticketed music festival with a family-friendly, all-ages appeal in downtown Jackson that took place from the late 1980s through early 2000s. Notable differences: the National Folk Festival is free, and it has no “headliners,” or at least performers touted as such.

“The festival is the star,” Waide said, emphasizing that the event’s rich and varied cultures and sheer range of artistic expression constitute its primary draw. “It’s not about elevating any one artist over other artists. There are no headliners, there’s no main stage. It’s about experiencing the whole thing.

“The message is that these folks are all around us, that this level of artistry and creativity across different cultural communities is there in America and it’s a chance to celebrate and honor that.”

The festival presents a chance to riff on that, too, as artists come together and creative sparks fly. Moyo recalled the magical synergy that bubbled up among a zydeco singer, blues band and Beat Ya Feet dancers at one festival, “And, it was one of the wildest things that I’ve ever experienced!” she said with a happy laugh. “You’ll never see that again.”

The National Folk Festival is free to make it accessible and set in downtown Jackson to make it centrally located.

“There’s the symbolic idea of the public square, and welcoming everybody in that space and offering a program that is as representative as possible so that everybody there feels that it belongs to them,” Waide said. 

The pedestrian-only festival site stretches from State Street to Farish Street, and Pascagoula Street to Yazoo Street, with six outdoor stages and a dance pavilion. Concrete barriers will prevent vehicular traffic on the site. Performers take to the streets, too, with Capitol at Congress a prime spot to catch them offstage, including krump dancing from Leaving Legacies in Jackson or New Orleans Black masking craftsman and stilt dancer Chief Shaka Zulu.

Parking options, free and paid, are available at downtown public parking decks and garages outside the festival site. Free festival parking is available at the southwest corner of the State Fairgrounds with a shuttle or walk to the festival site, as well as a free park-and-ride shuttle service from Smith-Wills Stadium.

Food and drink (soft drinks, lemonade, water, beer, seltzers, canned wine) will be for sale at the festival. Food selections, too, reflect a range of cultures, including Jamaican, Southern, barbecue, Mediterranean, Mexican, Colombian, fair food and more, with strong representation from local eateries (including Hen and Egg, Campbell’s Bakery, Hal & Mal’s, Green Ghost Tacos and Lee’s Heavenly BBQ & Soul Food).

A Festival Marketplace highlights traditional and contemporary handmade creations from state and regional artists and craftspeople, including quilts, pottery, jewelry, woodwork and more.

“One of the best parts about the festival is that it’s going to bring everyone together around the arts,” Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director David Lewis said.

The festival welcomes cultural communities from across the nation to Jackson, plus showcases many right here in Mississippi, particularly in the City with Soul Mississippi Folklife Area and stage on the Old Capitol Green. This year’s “Legacies of Empowerment” theme ties into the centennial of the births of blues legend B.B. King and civil rights champion Medgar Evers. In addition to blues and gospel, hear hip hop, punk and Mexican huapango music, enjoy Choctaw social dancing and see demonstrations of pine needle and Choctaw basketry, and Super Chikan’s guitar-making skills.

“Visitors have an opportunity not only to learn from the artists, but also participate actively in creating something communally as part of the festival,” Kristen Brandt, the folk and traditional arts director at the Mississippi Arts Commission, said. Zinesters lead visitors in creating their own mini-magazines, for example.

The folklife focus also wraps in groups bound by community and culture that may surprise some to find at the arts-heavy festival, such as skateboarders with Skate Jackson, the Motor Mouse Motorcycle Club from Indianola and a fourth generation farming family from Sledge.

The “Legacies of Empowerment” theme echoes, too, in the Family Area in Smith Park, where children can make their own personalized little Lucilles in a nod to King’s famous guitar, and make-and-take buttons reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement. Traditional Choctaw games and crafts, animal ambassadors from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, family crest or flag making and storytelling, and Mississippi State University’s cyber-education team’s STEM trailer all entice engagement from the younger set. Performers such as the Acme Miniature Flea Circus, Leaving Legacies krump dancers and Vasti Jackson with his Soul of Jimmie Rodgers program keep steady entertainment on the park’s stage.

The National Folk Festival’s join-in fun hits its peak at the Welcome to Jackson Dance Pavilion where Pearl and State streets meet, music rules and feet move to klezmer and country western, go-go and zydeco and plenty more.

“That’s going to be the hot spot, the entire weekend,” Moyo said of the pavilion. “You can dance anywhere, but that’s where you learn and that’s where you can participate. There will always be some sort of music that will make you move your body at the dance tent.”

The event, built on partnerships, requires 800 to 1,000 volunteers for efficient operation in backstage support, beverage sales and transportation, and as artist ambassadors, members of the Bucket Brigade collecting donations to help keep the festival free, and more. 

“Really, the festival is about community engagement, civic participation and public service,” Waide said. “It takes the whole community to get behind it.” 

Moyo witnessed the strong, years-long family engagement at other festivals. 

“I talked to one daughter who started volunteering with her mom when she was 6. She’s 22 now, and that story’s not rare in the folk festival world. This is an opportunity for our families here … to build new traditions,” Moyo said.

Stakeholders see potential benefits stretching far beyond this weekend. 

“We have an opportunity to demonstrate to people what a wonderful place Jackson is. It’s not hard to find a lot of negative narratives about the city, but what gets missed is all the wonderful things that are in Jackson,” Jackson Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Christopher Pike said.

“I think it’s going to be a catalyst. You’re going to get people to come to Jackson who’ve never been to Jackson before, and they’re going to fall in love with the things that we have, that we do well here, and you might see other investments to come out of that.”

National Folk Festival volunteers can sign at nationalfolkfestival.com/volunteer or on site at the festival’s volunteer check-in.

Correction 11/6/2025: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Thabi Moyo.