Hand crafts, food, music and fellowship are the main attractions at the annual Black Belt Folk Roots Festival held on the Old Courthouse Square in Eutaw, Greene County, Alabama.

Where else can you smile and sway to ole timey blues, enjoy the delicacies of right-off-the grill barbecue and polish sausages, feast on freshly cooked country dinners with assorted pies and cakes and then top it all off with hand churned homemade ice cream.

All this and more is happening at the annual Black Belt Folk Roots Festival on Saturday, August 28 and Sunday August 29 on the Old Courthouse Square in Eutaw, AL.

 The festival features down home blues music, old timey gospel, traditional foods, handmade crafts and special events for the young people. Saturday’s events are scheduled from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with Ole Timey Blues and dancing featuring musicians Clarence Davis, The Liberators, Birmingham George, Shar-Baby, Lil’ Lee, Jessie Daniels, The Fender Benders, Davey Williams, Jock Webb, Russell Gulley, Mac Davis and B.J. Miller and others.

The handmade crafts available at the festival are traditional quilts and other needle works; baskets from white oak, pine needles and corn shucks. The assortments of down-home foods include soul food dinners, barbecue, fried fish, chicken and skins, Polish sausage, homemade ice cream, cakes, pies, jams and jelly; snow cones, Italian ice, and more. 

The Children’s Stage opens at 12:00 noon with storytelling, rap poetry, African drumming and dance, face painting, magician shows, clown acts, crafts, and more.

     Ole Timey Gospel is reserved for Sunday’s festival beginning at 2:00 p.m. and featuring the Echo Gospel Singers, Tishabee Male Chorus, The Melody Kings, The Mississippi Traveling Stars, New Generation Youth Gospel Choir, Greene County Community Choir and many others.  “The Black Belt Folk Roots Festival is home coming time in the region. Many families, class reunions and social clubs plan their annual activities to coincide with the festival’s schedule,” stated Dr. Carol P. Zippert, festival coordinator. “For 35 years now, the festival has been bringing together musicians, craftspersons, storytellers, food specialists, community workers – all who are considered bearers of the traditions and folkways of the West Alabama region,” she explained.  ” It is a festival where people truly celebrate themselves, their joys, their struggles and especially ‘how we made it over,’” Zippert said.

   According to Dr. Zippert, the two day festival is held on the old courthouse square in Eutaw and is open to the public free of charge. The hours are Saturday, August 28, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Sunday August 29, 2:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.

   The Black Belt Folk Roots Festival is supported in part by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Alabama Bureau of Tourism & Travel, the Black Belt Community Foundation and other local contributors.

 The festival is produced by the Society of Folk Arts & Culture.

 There is no admission fee for the Festival events.

 For more information contact Carol P. Zippert at 205-372-0525;

Email: cpzippert@aol.com