The National Folk Festival is a 3-day event to be held in Jackson in 2025, 2026 and 2027

More details have been announced for the upcoming National Folk Festival that will be hosted in the city of Jackson for the next three years.

The three-day festival is set to be held in downtown Jackson during the second week of November 2025, 2026 and 2027. It will feature music, art, dance and food from cultures throughout the nation and around the world.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and officials from the National Council for the Traditional Arts, who created the festival, held a press conference with more details on the event outside of the Mississippi Museum of Art on Tuesday. During the press conference, The Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band of Coldwater, performed as well as a performance by three-time Grammy Award winner and Jackson Resident Bobby Rush.

The Clarion Ledger first broke news of the traveling festival coming to Jackson on May 8 after members of the Jackson City Council let details of the event slip during a meeting, much to the mayor's dismay.

"As we were aiming to be the selected city for the National Folk Festival, part of our charge and part of our effort to entice the selection of the City of Jackson was to make it clear where we have roots in the creation of blues and jazz and genres like gospel music, that this is the opportunity for America's music to come home to Mississippi," Lumumba said. "We want to make it clear that this National Folk Festival is Mississippi's National Folk Festival, not just the City of Jackson."

Jackson beat 42 other cities vying to host the National Folk Festival. It is estimated the festival will bring 60,000 attendees in it's first year and 100,000 each year after that, Lumumba said. It is also estimated to bring over $60 million during the festival's three year residency.

According to the National Council for the Traditional Arts website, the event first started in 1934 and "is the oldest multicultural festival of traditional arts in the nation, and has been produced from its inception by the NCTA."

According to a City of Jackson press release the event is expected to bring more than 300,000 people to Jackson during the three-year run.

"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," the press release states. "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."

The city did not provide specifics on where in downtown Jackson the outdoor event will be held.

After the three years the National Folk Festival is in Jackson, the plan is to start hosting a locally produced, Jackson festival to take its place for subsequent years.

"We've seen how the festival can be a drive for long-term economic impacts, downtown revitalization and really a sense of community building," said Blaine Waide, the executive director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: National Folk Festival coming to downtown Jackson MS for three years