Raw States
Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival
Meridian, MS · Music
- When
- May 6–8, 2027
- Where
- Meridian City Hall lawn / The MAX · Meridian · MS
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet
Meridian honors Jimmie Rodgers, the Mississippi railroad brakeman known as the Father of Country Music, with a bluegrass and Americana festival that has run since 1953. It reached its 73rd year in 2026, making it one of the longest running music festivals in the country.
The history within reach
- Jimmie Rodgers Music Festivalsame spot
Meridian honors Jimmie Rodgers, the Mississippi railroad brakeman known as the Father of Country Music, with a bluegrass and Americana festival that has run since 1953.
- Jimmie Rodgerssame spot
The Singing Brakeman, born in Meridian, a railroad man who took the blues he heard trackside and yodelled country music into being.
- Medgar Evers24 mi
Born in Decatur, walked twelve miles to school, came home from the Normandy campaign to be turned away from voting at gunpoint, and became Mississippi's first NAACP field secretary.
- Freedom Summer37 mi
A thousand mostly white northern students came south to register Black voters.
- Neshoba County Fair37 mi
Mississippi's Giant House Party — a campground fair of family cabins, held since 1889.