As a teenager, Clifford Murphy’s parents warned him to stay away from Lowell, Massachusetts, because someone would steal his car. Despite their caution, however, when Murphy learned in 1987 that the National Council for the Traditional Arts was producing a festival, now known as the Lowell Folk Festival, that featured some bands he wanted to see, he decided to crank his car and make the hour-long drive from his New Hampshire home anyway.
“They were performing music I liked … so I went, and it got me into downtown Lowell, which is a post-industrial factory town,” Murphy, now the director for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, D.C., told the Mississippi Free Press.
Experiencing the city and the music he encountered that day left a lasting impression on Murphy.
“One, it made me not afraid of Lowell. And two, it was the first time I ever saw Indian music, like from the country of India,” he said. “I saw people playing sitars. I’d heard that music before, but I’d never been in the presence of it.”
The National Council for the Traditional Arts is now preparing for the 83rd National Folk Festival, the second of a three-year residency in Jackson, Mississippi, set to take place between Nov. 13 and Nov. 15. This year, the festival’s producers are collaborating with the Smithsonian for the latter’s “Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals,” a series of programs commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States and celebrating the country’s cultural landscape.
“I’m a former working musician,” Murphy said. “The first time I ever went to Mississippi, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is the place where so much of the music that I love or so much of the music that has influenced the music I love comes from.’”
“I love that the National Folk Festival is an invitation for people to come to a culturally significant city like Jackson to be able to experience this and to be invited into a space with not just music and culture from and of Mississippi, but also a bunch of other cultural neighbors from around the country.”
The Smithsonian has been producing the Folklife Festival since 1967 and transitioned to a 16-week bicentennial festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1976. To celebrate the 250th, the institution decided to take the celebration to the people with plans to visit 40 festivals across the country.
“We wanted to meet people and communities where they live,” Murphy explained. “We wanted to partner with cultural festivals that are happening in place as a way of connecting, as a way of learning, as a kind of way of exploring this idea of ‘Why do we gather?’”
Some of the other festivals the organization will be visiting throughout the year include the G.O.A.T. Picnic in Coldwater, Mississippi; Tucson Meet Yourself in Tucson, Arizona; The Farm Aid Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Living Traditions in Salt Lake City, Utah; and the People’s Poetry Gathering in New York City.
‘We’re the Rising Stars Now’
In 1950, fife and drum musician Otha Turner would host Labor Day picnics on his farm, butchering a goat and cooking it in an iron kettle. His Rising Star and Fife Drum band would perform for family and neighbors while everyone ate and shared in one another’s company. This tradition was originally known as “Everybody Hollerin’ Goat,” but it has since evolved into the G.O.A.T. Picnic today in Coldwater, Mississippi.
“He started it on his farm basically like a fundraiser for his family to provide school clothes and school supplies,” Sharde Mallory, Turner’s grandchild, told the Mississippi Free Press. “Throughout the years after he passed, I took on the torch, and Chris (Mallory) came along and he began to jump in and help wherever help was needed. And here we are today still having a goat picnic in honor of my grandfather.”
The annual two-day festival, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2025, features musical guests and attracts attendees from all over the world like Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. Sharde and Chris have continued the fife and drum tradition and have taken over The Rising Stars Band, with Sharde on fife and Chris on the drums.
“We chose ‘goat’ (for the name) because, for one, we eat goat meat. We cook goat meat. And we wanted to symbolize her grandfather, who was known as the greatest fife player of all time. So we named it the G.O.A.T. Picnic, (which stands for) Greatest of All Time Picnic,” Chris Mallory explained to the Mississippi Free Press.
Othar “Otha” Turner was born in Canton, Mississippi, in 1907, but he moved further north near Como, Mississippi, where he was a farmer. At the age of 16, he learned to play fifes, a small woodwind instrument in the flute family, made out of rivercanes. Eventually, he learned to play other instruments like the drums.
In 1960, Turner formed the Rising Star and Fife Drum Band, made up of friends and relatives, who would play at farm parties. In 1993, the group received wide recognition for hill country blues music with their inclusion in the “Mississippi Delta Blues Jam, in Memphis Vol. 1” album. The group released its acclaimed album “Everybody Hollerin’ Goat” in 1998 with Birdman Records, following it up a year later with “From Senegal to Senatobia.” In 2003, Otha Turner died in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, at the age of 95.
“We’re the Rising Stars now, and we travel all over the world, still playing that type of music, preserving it and evolving it at the same time to keep that tradition going,” Sharde said.
All artists performing at the festival are volunteers, and anyone who feels moved to want to perform are open to hit the stage. This allows the picnic to keep the spirit of her granddaddy alive and the family-friendly environment he curated on his farm, Sharde said. The Smithsonian will be visiting the festival in August as part of the institution’s “Festival of Festivals” campaign, of which the duo feel honored to be a part.
“When you think about how many festivals are going on, to be in one of the 40 that they see as this important, that they want to contribute and help and be a part of, it’s definitely full circle for the legacy that we are carrying on,” Chris Mallory said.
With the Smithsonian’s emphasis being to highlight culture across the country, the G.O.A.T. Picnic keeps that at the forefront of what they do with the music, food and vibes of the festival. Last year, they created a special cocktail called “Goatshine” to celebrate the 75th anniversary and an ode to moonshine.
“I’m not sure if you’ve been, but just the vibes that the G.O.A.T. Picnic have is kind of like a laid-back backyard party. And it’s definitely culture all the way. I would say how we cook the goat down to how we prepare the goat. We still cook it in the cauldron, so we still do a lot of that country-culture stuff,” she said.
Sharde said that attendees have started to see the picnic as their family reunion, allowing them to commune and reunite with family they may not have seen for years. Even artists who perform use it as a way to network with each other, which harkens back to the vibe her grandfather wanted to create.
“ I feel like that’s a testament to not only who he was, but it’s a testament to who we are as artists and people,” Chris Mallory said. “We naturally bring people together with our energy, with his energy and with the festive environment that we create.”
‘A Common Goal’
National Council for the Traditional Arts Executive Director Blaine Wade said that the Smithsonian and NTCA have had a relationship over the years, with the institution sending 12 to 15 representatives to attend last year’s National Folk Festival in Jackson. The collaboration came as no surprise to the council, who had been in early talks with them about the 250th anniversary.
“Our festival is all about celebrating the culture of all these different communities now throughout the United States,” Wade told the Mississippi Free Press. “In particular, Mississippi has a very rich cultural legacy, whether you’re talking about Mississippi’s literary heritage, Mississippi’s music history, (or) its food ways.”
“Jackson has been recognized, especially for its food culture and scene,” he added. “So, I think it’s a really important opportunity for the 250th anniversary to hold up and shine a light on all that Mississippi culture has contributed to the American story.”
This year’s festivities will include National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows, some with ties to Mississippi and some from cities throughout the country. It’s all in an effort to shine a light on what Mississippi is still contributing to the art scene and how traditions are still being kept alive here.
“What we’re hoping and what we think will happen by creating such an exciting program of so many excellent artists is people are gonna be looking for stories about the national story to experience during the 250,” Wade explained.
“People are gonna wanna come to Mississippi,” he continued. “And they come to see the Crossroads, they go to Clarksdale, they go to Marty Stewart’s house or Elvis Presley’s house in Tupelo and experience these stories that are really foundational to the story, the history and story of American music.”
Wade said that festivals are the perfect embodiment of culture because they bring people together in a shared space that, like Jackson’s downtown area, belongs to everybody. Festivals are a joyous environment where there is something for everyone and where people realize how much we all have in common, he noted.
“This is a true community lift,” Wade said, crediting the thousands of volunteers and the different stakeholders for unifying to raise money for the National Folk Festival. “… And that’s what’s made the festival so transformative in these other communities—because it really stresses all the positive impacts that can happen when cities combine resources and work towards a common goal.”
Jackson is on the rise and the National Folk Festival is the perfect opportunity to not just put the city on a pedestal and make people stop and indulge in it, Wade said. It’s also a way to introduce Mississippi’s youth and other residents to opportunities that might have never come through the city if not for the festival.
“It’s a chance to broaden horizons and create cultural enrichment opportunities,” Wade said. “It’s a chance to celebrate what’s close at home, but also to bring new opportunities into the city and hopefully, build out an infrastructure where this continues to last and these opportunities continue to come through Jackson.”
The National Folk Festival, free to the public, is now taking applications for the crafts marketplace and more announcements for volunteers, and food vendors will be announced in the coming weeks. The National Folk Festival kicks off on Nov. 13, 2026, and lasts through Nov. 15. To learn more about the festival, visit nationalfolkfestival.com.
This year’s G.O.A.T. Picnic, free to the public, takes place in Coldwater, Mississippi, on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30, 2026. To learn more about Otha Turner and the festival, visit goatpicnic.com.
To learn more about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, visit festival.si.edu.
