83rd National Folk Festival and Mississippi Arts Commission Unveil Program for Festival’s Mississippi Folklife Area
Mississippi Folk Festival Program to Spotlight State’s Music, Food and Craft Traditions
Mississippi’s blues, gospel, bluegrass, Indigenous foodways, boatbuilding and quilting traditions will be featured in a dedicated folklife program at the 83rd National Folk Festival in downtown Jackson on Nov. 13-15, 2026.
The Mississippi Arts Commission has curated the Mississippi Folklife Area & Stage program, titled Mississippi Flavor: At the Crossroads of the American Story. The area is part of the festival’s second year of a three-year Jackson residency and is intended to examine the state’s cultural influence through performances, demonstrations, food and hands-on presentations.
The announced lineup includes Hill Country blues performer Cedric Burnside of Holly Springs; soul-blues guitarist Eddie Cotton Jr. of Clinton; Delta blues pianist Eden Brent of Greenville; gospel-soul family group Annie & the Caldwells of West Point; and Alan Sibley & the Magnolia Ramblers, a bluegrass and gospel group from Ackerman.
Other musical participants include Rising Stars Fife & Drum of Coldwater, Los Preeminentes of Greenwood, hip-hop artist Hollywood Luck of Jackson, gospel group Jemero Carter & Kingdomology of Oxford, and sacred steel musicians from Tupelo’s Church of the Living God.
Food programming is set to include Jackson restaurant Big Apple Inn, Leland tamale maker Las Delicias, Natchez cook Jarita Frazier-King and Choctaw culinary educators Leda and Annie Issac. Festival organizers also plan to bring tailgating traditions from Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi to the event.
The folklife area will also feature demonstrations and exhibits focused on handweaving, hairbraiding, blacksmithing, woodworking, quilting, boat restoration and catfish grabbling. Participants include the Chimneyville Weavers & Spinners Guild, hairbraider Melony Armstrong, blacksmith Palmer Robbins, bowl hewer Peter Sherman, the Mississippi Cultural Crossroads quilting group and the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum.
David Lewis, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, said the program is designed to connect the state’s food and music traditions with the nation’s 250th-anniversary commemorations. The festival will also include a program featuring National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship recipients and will participate in the Smithsonian’s Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals initiative.
About 300 musicians, dancers, storytellers and craftspeople are expected across the full National Folk Festival, with more than 30 musical groups scheduled to perform at up to six outdoor venues in downtown Jackson. Additional artists may be announced later, and performance schedules and site details are expected in the fall.
The free festival is organized through a partnership that includes the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the City of Jackson, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, Visit Jackson and the Mississippi Arts Commission.