2026 LOWELL FOLK FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FIRST SET OF PERFORMERS
SLATED TO PLAY AT ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED FREE SUMMER TRADITIONS
Elida Almeida, Melissa Carper & Emily Gimble, Dat Mighty 9, John Doyle & Friends, Fabiola Mendez, and Super Chikan & the Fighting Cocks to Perform
On Stages Across Downtown Lowell July 24-26
(Lowell MA-April 22, 2026) On July 24-26, the 2026 Lowell Folk Festival will transform downtown Lowell Massachusetts into a vibrant three-day free celebration of music and culture from around the world. The first set of performers announced for the 39th Lowell Folk Festival include Elida Almeida, Melissa Carper & Emily Gimble, Dat Mighty 9, John Doyle & Friends, Fabiola Mendez, and Super Chikan & the Fighting Cocks. These artists represent a rich tapestry of cultures from Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. For more information about the Lowell Folk Festival visit lowellfolkfestival.org.
Cape Verdean singer-songwriter Elida Almeida was born on the island of Santiago where she first realized her talents singing hymns in church. Later, she honed her musical knowledge as host of a radio show, where she developed a love for the popular music of Cape Verde—especially funaná and batuque—that would become the cornerstones of her repertoire. While attending college, Elida began performing her original songs in local bars and nightclubs, where she was first discovered by legendary Cape Verdean producer José da Silva. Almeida’s big break came when her ballad “Nta Konsiqui”, went viral on YouTube after being featured on a Portuguese soap opera in 2015. Since then, Eliada has gone on to international acclaim, touring Europe and North America and releasing five albums to date. As a performer, her buoyant energy and big voice are infectious. As a songwriter Elida Almeida is thoughtful, tender, and profound, always mindful of her culture and proud of her Cape Verdean roots.
Celebrated for her profoundly observational lyrics, her “homespun sensibility,” and a voice that curls like a croon from a gramophone, Melissa Carper plays old-school country music that resonates across time and place. Veteran Nashville musician Chris Scruggs highlighted Carper’s versatile traditionalism when he dubbed her “Hill Billie Holiday,” declaring, “She’s as good as it gets. She has a quality that really transcends time and fashion.” Carper’s musical journey includes membership in beloved bands including the Camptown Ladies, Wonder Women of Country, the Carper Family, and Sad Daddy. She comes to Lowell with two other powerful women musicians, guitarist Myrah Burnette and pianist/violinist Emily Gimble.
Dat Mighty 9 will bring New Orleans Black Masking Carnival music to the Merrimack Valley this July. Among the most riveting sights on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans is the city’s Black Masking Carnival gangs enacting ritualistic musical battles in the streets, decked out in impossibly colorful, intricate costumery. Romeo Bougere, Big Chief of the 9th Ward Hunters grew up surrounded by the sounds of the city and has deep roots in New Orleans’s rich music history. His father, Rudy Bougere, was founder and Big Chief of the 9th Ward Hunters, and Romeo began masking with him at age 4, assuming leadership at 17. Steeped in New Orleans funk, hip hop, and R&B, he is a soulful vocalist and strong percussionist. Harkening back to the Mardi Gras Indian funk sound and instrumentation established by the Wild Magnolias, Dat Mighty 9 performs live as an eight-piece band.
John Doyle & Friends is led by one of the most influential Irish American guitarists of his generation, who has gathered some of his good friends to play together at this year’s festival. John Doyle (guitar/vocals), Eamon O’Leary (vocals, bouzouki, and guitar), Duncan Wickel (fiddle, cello, and viola), and Lily Henley (vocals and fiddle), each bring a unique expertise to the stage, creating a powerhouse group of musicians that exemplify traditional music. The ballads, tunes, and new and rediscovered songs they will perform reflect their love of the traditional music that has been a touchstone of Irish identity for generations. They also build on the heritage of Irish immigrants who settled in Appalachia, where Irish song provided some of the building blocks for old-time, country, and bluegrass.
“The cuatro is part of me,” says bandleader Fabiola Méndez. “So everywhere I go, I’m going to bring the cuatro, I’m going to bring a little part of Puerto Rico.” Now making her home in Massachusetts, Méndez is at the forefront of a new generation bringing traditional Puerto Rican music to audiences across the world. The cuatro, a smaller relative of the guitar, is central to the culture of the jibaros, the rural people of Puerto Rico. Méndez grew up in Caguas, Puerto Rico, in a family that loved jibaro music. She started cuarto lessons at age six and left the island to attend Berklee College of Music, where she studied music education. There she found the faculty receptive to her desire to incorporate Puerto Rico’s iconic folk instrument into the curriculum, and her years at Berklee “expanded my vision of what’s possible with the cuatro.” In 2018, Méndez was Berklee’s first graduate with cuatro as their principal instrument. She was honored as the 2023 Boston Music Awards Latin Artist of the Year. At the Lowell Folk Festival, Fabiola Méndez performs with her quartet, which includes her longtime bandmates, percussionist Miguel Martinez, and father-and-son duo Juan Maldonado on bass and Adrian Maldonado on drum.
Mississippi Delta bluesman James “Super Chikan” Johnson plays the guitars he makes himself, using whatever materials are at hand, from gas cans to ceiling fans. He paints each “chikantar” with images from the Delta. The resulting riot of style and color is, like his music, infused with Chikan’s special joie de vivre. “Making one of my guitars is like writing one of my songs. I let the words and feelings take me from the beginning to the end,” he explains. His lyrics, like his art, are noted for both their sly humor and deep insight into life in the Delta. Born in 1951, Johnson drove a truck for a living for several years, making up songs to pass the time on the road. Encouraged by those who heard his songs, he embarked on a professional music career in the 1990s, beginning a series of exuberant recordings, including Chikadelic, which took home a Blues Music Award for best Traditional Blues Album in 2010. He received the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for his musical contributions, and he can be seen in the 2025 Academy Award-winning film Sinners, which is set in his hometown. With his jaunty all-female band, the Fighting Cocks, featuring Laura “LaLa” Craig on piano, Heather Falduto on bass, and his daughter Jamiesa “Pinky” Turner on drums, Super Chikan brings that juke joint feel to the Lowell Folk Festival, where he’s sure to put on a party—Chikan-style.
Additional performing artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Lowell Folk Festival has become one of America’s most popular free summer events, welcoming both traditional music and crafts makers, and their enthusiastic fans to Lowell Massachusetts, which is celebrating its Bicentennial this year. In addition to the dozens of musical performances on four different stages over the festival’s three day schedule, the Lowell Folk Festival offers something for everyone in the family.
The Discovery Lowell Playspace, anchored by the award-winning Discovery Museum in Acton (MA), is a fun and inclusive area where young festival goers have the opportunity to engage in a wide range of interactive activities.
Global Foods, which can be found at 3 locations throughout downtown Lowell, offers hungry festival goers a world of options as cuisines from a variety of cultures are prepared and sold by local non-profits representing different cultures found in New England.
The Experience Lowell Marketplace, in partnership with Mosaic Lowell, features artists, craft makers, and organizations from the area, enabling festival attendees to experience everything that Mill City’s arts and culture community has to offer.
The Lowell Folk Festival is produced by the Lowell Festival Foundation, City of Lowell, Greater Lowell Community Foundation, Lowell National Historical Park, National Council for the Traditional Arts, and Revolutionary Valley.
Community Partners include Mosaic Lowell and the Lowell Litter Krewe.
Major support for the Lowell Folk Festival comes from Saab Family Foundation, Rockland Trust Bank, Richard K And Nancy L Donahue Charitable Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, Mass Office of Travel & Tourism, Lowell Cultural Council, LMTLSS Media, Demoulas Foundation, UMass Lowell, Middlesex Community College, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Quality Beverage, John Hunnewell Trust, Aubert Fay Foundation, Joseph P. Donahue Charitable Foundation Trust, Hilton Garden Inn Tewksbury Andover, Dylan & Pete’s Ice Cream, Lowell Five Bank, C4 Energy, Vinfen, Suffolk Construction, Lowell Ink, Progressive Pilgrimage, Albert E. J. Bergeron Insurance Agency, Fred C. Church Insurance, LAZ Parking, Mark-One, Lowell Family Dental Practice, Owl Stamp Visual Solutions, and All Sports Heroes.
The Lowell Folk Festival acknowledges the contributions from exhibitors: All at Home Health Care, Alzheimer’s Association, Capital Vacations, Discovery Museum, Ecoview Windows & Doors, Garelick Farms, Jack Kerouac Center, Leaf Filter, Lowell Chess Club, Lowell City of Learning / UNESCO, Lowell Humane Society, Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race, LNRG, LVAD Strong, Power Home Remodeling, Sisters Project Peru, Taffeta Music Hall, TDDS. and Wayside Youth & Family Support Network.
Business sponsors include Adobe, Athenian Corner, Brew’d Awakenings, Cobblestones, El Potro, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union, Lazy Cat Lounge, lala books, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, The Old Court, TMI Properties, Washington Savings Bank, Worthen House Cafe, and ZenBusiness.
A special thanks is extended to media partners: 92.5 The River, Chelmsford Telemedia, CK Communications Group, Inside Lowell, Lowell Sun, Lowell Telecommunications Corporation (LTC), Mill City Weather, Stub Stories, and WCAP.
For information about the 2026 Lowell Folk Festival, including how to sponsor or be an exhibitor, musical artists and schedules, and other programming, visit lowellfolkfestival.org to stay posted on all updates for the 2026 Lowell Folk Festival.