{"id":13081,"date":"2014-04-08T16:45:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T21:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=13081"},"modified":"2014-04-08T16:45:52","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T21:45:52","slug":"11th-annual-juke-joint-festival-in-clarksdale-this-weekend-april-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/11th-annual-juke-joint-festival-in-clarksdale-this-weekend-april-12\/","title":{"rendered":"11th Annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale This Weekend (April 12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clarksdale\u2019s 11th Annual Juke Joint Festival Celebrates Mississippi\u2019s Living Blues Heritage<\/h2>\n

\u201cHalf<\/span> blues festival, half<\/span> small-town fair, and all<\/span> about the Delta.\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n

Clarksdale, Mississippi \u2013 Clarksdale\u2019s Juke Joint Festival<\/strong> may only be celebrating its 11th edition, but it is already the stuff of blues legend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c2013 was the biggest Juke Joint Festival yet, and so far, 2014 looks to top it,\u201d according to festival co-organizer Roger Stolle<\/strong>. \u201cLast year, we had attendees from at least 28 foreign countries, 46 U.S. states and 53 Mississippi counties. Our fest even picked up mentions in both The New York Times<\/em> and Travel+Leisure<\/em> last year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s main event is Saturday, April 12\u2014all day and late into the night\u2014with related events kicking off Thursday and continuing through Sunday night. The official line-up of events can be found online at www.jukejointfestival.com<\/a>. The Saturday festival itself features 100 blues acts<\/strong>, a dozen stages<\/strong>, racing pigs<\/strong>, a 5K\/8K run, multiple children\u2019s activities, history bus tours, arts & crafts vendors, Southern food offerings, real juke joints, a student art\/writing contest, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ClarksdaleCrossroads2\"<\/a>Daytime activities are free, thanks in large part to major sponsors like C Spire (official technology sponsor for the festival), Isle of Capri, Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division, Clarksdale\/Coahoma County Tourism Commission, and Miss Del\u2019s General Store, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nighttime music requires a wristband.<\/strong> Pre-sale wristbands for the festival\u2019s 20+ Saturday-night \u201cjuke joint\u201d venues are available at www.jukejointfestival.com<\/a> ($15 pre-sale; $20 at door).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJuke Joint Festival is half blues festival, half small-town fair, and all about the Delta,\u201d according to co-organizer Nan Hughes<\/strong>. \u201cThere will be tons of official and related events all weekend long for both families and music fans. You literally cannot do, see and hear everything.<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s completely overwhelming\u2014in a good way!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival weekend starts early with Thursday, April 10th\u2019s Juke Joint Festival Kick-off <\/strong>event at 5 pm featuring a Juke Joint Festival poster signing by artist Cristen Craven Barnard<\/strong> and live lobby blues by Sean \u201cBad\u201d Apple<\/strong>. At 6 pm, the FREE kick-off moves onto the Delta Cinema main stage with Grammy Winner Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition<\/strong> performing, followed by student performances by Clarksdale\u2019s own Dancing Divas of the Delta<\/strong> and Griot Arts<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Then, on Friday, April 11, related events include educational presentations at the Delta Blues Museum<\/strong> and book signings and live blues at other downtown businesses and entities, including the Rock & Blues Museum<\/strong>. At night, many of Clarksdale\u2019s classic blues clubs and jukes will run.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"VisitClarksdale\"<\/a>After Saturday\u2019s Juke Joint Festival itself, a Sunday of additional related events will cap off the weekend\u2014including the annual, free, Cat Head Mini Blues Fest<\/strong> and the Second Street Blues Party<\/strong>. The Rock & Blues Museum and Delta Blues Museum will be open as well as several downtown restaurants and businesses. The weekend wraps up with live blues at Red\u2019s Lounge<\/strong> and other venues that night.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Clarksdale Visitor Station, most (if not all) local hotel rooms are reserved. Fortunately, official festival sponsor Isle of Capri in nearby Lula, Mississippi, still has hotel rooms available and will run a bus shuttle to\/from festival on Friday afternoon\/evening and Saturday day\/nighttime. (Special room rate code: JUKE 14, details at 1-800-843-4753).<\/span><\/p>\n

Full music line-up, event schedule, pre-sale wristbands, sponsor list, and much more available online at www.jukejointfestival.com<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Festival hotline<\/strong> (Mon\u2013Sat, 11 am\u20134 pm), 662-624-5992<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksdale\u2019s 11th Annual Juke Joint Festival Celebrates Mississippi\u2019s Living Blues Heritage \u201cHalf blues festival, half small-town fair, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":13082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3220,321,52,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-delta-2","category-localfestivals","category-music-shows","category-southern-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/JukeJointFeat.jpg?fit=2583%2C1454&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}