How The ACGG’s investment continues to pay dividends for Greensboro
For one weekend each September, music from multiple stages fills downtown Greensboro. Festival-goers shout, clap, sway and dance.
It’s free. It’s fun. And it has become one of Greensboro’s signature events.
More than 135,000 people attend the North Carolina Folk Festival each year, bringing energy — and significant economic activity — to downtown Greensboro. The impact reaches restaurants, hotels, shops and other businesses throughout the city.
But an event this big doesn’t happen by accident.
Its roots in Greensboro go back to 2015, when The Arts Council of Greater Greensboro and the City of Greensboro successfully brought the National Folk Festival to the city for a three-year residency. When the national festival moved on after 2017, The ACGG helped turn that momentum into something built to stay: the North Carolina Folk Festival.
The ACGG produced the statewide festival in its early years, helping establish the relationships, partnerships and support necessary for it to take hold. In 2020, the festival moved out from under The ACGG umbrella and continued forward as an independent nonprofit.
That independence is part of the success story.
“The Folk Festival has always been built on partnership,” said Jodee Ruppel, executive director of the North Carolina Folk Festival. “What began with a group of partners willing to invest in an idea has grown into an organization with the strength to carry that work forward.”
“We’re proud of what we’ve built together and excited about what comes next.”
Today, the North Carolina Folk Festival operates with an engaged board, a sustainable financial model, and a clear strategy for its future. Collaboration remains central to how the organization works — bringing together businesses, government, artists, volunteers, sponsors, and community partners to create one of Greensboro’s largest annual events.
The ACGG’s role has changed, but the partnership continues through investments. The independent festival received grant support from The ACGG in collaboration with the NC Arts Council and Guilford County in the 2025 Festival Grant and 2026 Summer Local Folk Series 2.
This is what a healthy creative sector looks like: organizations with the leadership, partnerships, and financial strength to sustain the work and build on it.
And it’s the kind of arts ecosystem The ACGG is working to strengthen throughout Greater Greensboro — investing early, connecting partners and helping build organizations and ideas that are made to last.