It’s been some time since Clarksdale had a Juke Joint Festival to talk about, but event organizers are hoping for one of the biggest yet this weekend.
Juke Joint was slapped with rain in 2019, COVID cancelled the 2020 event and last year’s Juke Joint Festival – while a lot of fun – just didn’t bring out the crowds.
With fair weather predicted for this weekend, Clarksdale will be pulling out all the stops and the odds are on for a great Juke Joint. More than 100 performers are slated to take to stages around town, each playing their unique style of blues.
Juke Joint officially kicks off Thursday, at 5 p.m. at the New Roxy with Clarkdale’s very own Sean “Bad” Apple playing his style of Mississippi Delta blues. Festival goers will hear music all weekend with multiple venues belting out the blues.
The main event is Saturday with Clarksdale hosting 16 free daytime music stages and 21 nighttime wristband venues.
Juke Jointers are reminded that pre-sale Saturday-night wristbands are available now at jukejointfestival.com. Quantities are limited, and organizers caution that last year was a sellout.
This year's massive music lineup includes 2022 Grammy Awards honorees Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, RL Boyce, Kenny Brown, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes and Jimbo Mathus in addition to festival favorites like The Rev. Peyton, James "Super Chikan" Johnson, Watermelon Slim, and Duwayne, Garry and Kent Burnside. The full lineup can be found at jukejointfestival.com.
Other free events during the long weekend include Thursday's New Roxy Kick-off with Keith Johnson & Big Muddy Band, Friday's New Roxy concert starring Eden Brent and Sunday's Cat Head Mini Blues Fest – just to name a few.
Other Juke Joint Festival activities include a blues panel discussion, musician workshops, Southern eats, children's fun, street vendors, a student art/writing exhibit, live-streams, racing pigs, monkeys riding dogs and more. Plus, to leverage the return of tourism to the Crossroads, the festival helps to promote numerous other "related events" organized by excited locals. Everything is listed on the official website, in advertisements in today’s Clarksdale Press Register, as well as in the printed program that weekend.
Juke Joint is an economic event for Clarksdale too, with hotels filling up by Wednesday and staying full until next week. Those tourists also eat a local restaurants, shop local stores and gas up for the trip back home.
2022 Juke Joint Festival sponsors include Visit Clarksdale, Cathead Vodka, Visit Mississippi, Crossroads Economic Partnership, C Spire, Southern Bancorp and Magdovitz Foundation—in addition to dozens of other supporters and private donors, big and small.
While masks will not be mandated, Southern manners will prompt many to wear their masks, social distance and just be polite toward others.
A parking ban will be new this year and no cars will be allowed downtown from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday
