JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson leaders announced the capital city has been named the officials 2025-2027 National Folk Festival host city.

Officials said Jackson was among 42 cities nationwide that competed for the honor of hosting the nation’s preeminent traveling celebration of traditional arts and culture for a three-year stay in 2025, 2026, and 2027.

The festival will begin its three-year stay in Jackson in November 2025.

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. During its three-year residency, the National Folk Festival is expected to draw more than 330,000 visitors to downtown Jackson, generate more than $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.

“On behalf of the City of Jackson, I want to express how excited and honored we are to host the National Folk Festival,” said Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba. “We like to say that Mississippi is the birthplace of America’s music, and we’re bringing the festival home.”

The festival will bring as many as six stages of continuous music, including a dance pavilion, as well as traditional crafts, regional and culturally diverse foods, storytelling, parades, and folklife demonstrations to downtown Jackson.