(with Related Events Thurs-Sun)
If y'all are willing to properly mask up (indoors and out, even between bites and sips), socially-distance at all times, hand sanitize often, go through an occasional temperature check and agree to stay home if you're sick... then plan now to attend this year's smaller, socially-distanced, more outdoors, limited indoor capacity, pandemic-ly modified Juke Joint Festival. (Too many rules for you? Then, please wait till 2022 to attend our nonprofit event.) Our musicians, volunteers, businesses and community truly appreciate your thinking of us.
Clarksdale, Mississippi's epic 18th annual festival is dedicated to all of the late, great musicians and supporters who have passed away during the pandemic — including Big George Brock, Louis "Gearshifter" Youngblood, Ben Wiley Payton, Rev John Wilkins, Larry Grisham and Kern Pratt. RIP. Thanks for your past music and friendship at JJF.
Juke Joint Festival is "half blues festival, half small-town fair and all about the Delta." It celebrates our past and living history by presenting dozens of blues acts — including many Mississippi and Southern greats. This is the real-deal Mississippi blues festival that you've read about in the New York Times and seen on PBS NewsHour. It is like no other event in the world with blues music, juke joints, children's events, a live radio show, monkeys riding dogs, racing pigs and more.
Thursday, April 15, 2021, features a free, outdoor JJF Kickoff with live blues and more. Friday features a number of free daytime events plus a Thacker Mountain Radio show event. We'll also feature limited events on Sunday. Still, the "main event" is Saturday...
During the DAYTIME on Saturday, April 17, 2021, you can expect multiple FREE outdoor stages of blues and roots music. Events that day kick off early with our 5K run/walk, and most of our daytime music stages and street vendors operate between 10am and 6pm.
Health & Safety Protocols will be required at all events and venues throughout the weekend.
For NIGHTTIME on Saturday, a JJF wristband gets you into a participating selection of local juke joints, blues clubs and restaurants. Our nighttime venues feature slightly staggered start times but basically start around 6 pm and end as late as midnight. Daytime is FREE; nighttime is a wristband (pre-sale wristbands sold via the "WRISTBANDS" link in the menu above).
Definitely bring your face masks and hand sanitizer! Also, we recommend folding chairs for Thursday "Kickoff," Friday "Thacker Mountain Radio" and Saturday's daytime music stages. You may also want to bring along some sunblock, mosquito spray and an umbrella. No coolers, and only well-trained, leashed dogs (with you picking up after them) permitted, please. No pet monkeys allowed! (You think we're joking, but it happens.) Thanks, y'all.
Can't make it this year? Plan to attend April 23rd weekend in 2022, y'all. (But you NEED to be here for 2021!)
Historic Clarksdale, Mississippi, is less than 90 minutes south of the Memphis International Airport and was once home to such blues greats as Son House, John Lee Hooker, Junior Parker, Ike Turner, Eddie Boyd, Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters, Pinetop Perkins, Earl Hooker, Lil Green, Big Jack Johnson and many many others. It's the land of the proverbial Crossroads! Today, local blues favorites include blues players with such colorful stage names as Super Chikan, Kingfish, Big A and Watermelon Slim.
Clarksdale has been undergoing a major revival in recent years as a result of blues-based tourism and downtown revitalization efforts, and Juke Joint Festival has been part of what some now call the "Clarksdale Comeback" since day one. Since Juke Joint Festival started, we've gained over 30 overnight apartments downtown (plus a new Hampton Inn and Traveler's Hotel; and the Shack Up Inn has grown from 6 shacks to sleeping 125 heads!), a dozen other new music festivals, live blues 365 nights a year, a new museum, multiple history markers, and new residents from all around the US and the world.
Come for a visit, but beware. Many former "tourists" now live here.
The Clarksdale Downtown Development Association is the 501c3 nonprofit that puts on the Juke Joint Festival (April) as well as the Clarksdale Film Festival (last weekend in January). CDDA wishes to thank all of the amazing sponsors, volunteers, musicians, artists and attendees that make our events possible. If you'd like to become a sponsor or make a donation to either festival, please just let us know.
The “Juke Joint Festival®” name and logo are registered trademarks and cannot be used by outside parties without the express written consent of the Clarksdale Downtown Development Association/Juke Joint Festival. All rights reserved. Third parties may not create unauthorized “Juke Joint Festival®” products (e.g. T-shirts and apparel) or advertising (e.g. event banners and print ads). Please be cool, y'all. We've worked really hard to build this brand. Thanks, and enjoy the festival.
GENERAL INFORMATION
PO BOX 1030
Clarksdale, MS 38614
Phone: 662-624-5992
EMAIL: roger@cathead.biz
EMAIL: pba@cableone.net
MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT & BOOKING
Because the national health crisis cancelled our 2020 festival, 99% of the gigs simply rolled over to 2021. Please stay tuned to see if JJF will need/accept any new/additional musician submissions. (Info will appear on this website in November.) Thank you for your support.
Juke Joint Festival® name and logo are registered trademarks of Clarksdale Downtown Development Association. All rights reserved.