Downtown Tucson goes folk: 400 artists, 150 performances, three days

It’s also introducing the audience, which is expected to average 7,000 to 8,000 a day from Friday, April 4 through Sunday, April 6, to artists who’ve played shows in Tucson but never on the folk festival stage and a few artists who we’ve never seen here.

“We wanted to put together a lineup that spoke to the history of the festival, the sort of heart of the festival, but also speaks to what the festival has evolved into today and where it is going in the future,” said Matt Rolland, president of the festival’s umbrella nonprofit Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association.

Four hundred local, regional and national acoustic artists whose music dips into folk, country, blues, Celtic, Indigenous and Latin will perform 150 shows on six stages in downtown’s Jácome Plaza, 101 N. Stone Ave., and surrounding El Presidio neighborhood.

The festival kicks off Friday with the annual Stefan George Memorial Songwriting Competition showcase on the Jácome Plaza Stage from 6 to 9 p.m. Last year’s winner, the award-winning South Carolina husband-and-wife duo of Admiral Radio, will open the show.

More than 80 artists entered the 2025 competition, which was whittled down to eight finalists — from Tucson, Annie Anna, Gabrielle Pietrangelo, Jon Frailey and Lara Ruggles; from Arizona, Ryan David Orr of Lakeside and Francis Larson of Scottsdale; The Brothers Reed from Medford, Oregon; and Arielle Silver from Toluca Lake, California — who will compete from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The 2023 winners Fox and Bones from Portland, Oregon, take the stage afterwards to allow the judges time to decide the first- through third-place winners.

The first- and second-place winners get to play the festival’s Plaza main stage Saturday night.

Stefan George, a Tucson Musicians Hall of Fame and Arizona Blues Hall of Fame member, was a legendary Tucson songwriter and regular on the folk festival stage. His 40-year career included prolific recording, touring internationally and appearances in a number of high-profile folk and blues festivals. He died in 2015 at the age of 62.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 40th annual Tucson Folk Festival.

When and where

The 2025 40th annual Tucson Folk Festival runs from Friday, April 4 through Sunday, April 6, with performances Friday from 6-9:30 p.m., Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.

• Plaza Stage at Jácome Plaza, 101 N. Stone Ave.
• North Church Stage, 200 N. Church Ave.
• Presidio Museum Stage, 196 N. Court Ave.
• Court Stage, 200 N Court Ave.
• Telles Stage, 201 N. Court Ave., near Telles Street
• Wildflower Stage in Jácome Plaza

The cost

The Tucson Foik Festival, one of the country’s longest-running, doesn’t charge admission, although it accepts donations. Instead, its parent, the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association, hosts fundraising events year-round and has community partners, sponsors and members. To learn more about donating or becoming a Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association member, visit tucsonfolkfest.org/donate.

The headliners

Saturday

Orkesta Mendoza, Tucson’s genre-bending indie rock/Latin band, has its musical hands in a number of melting pots, from the mambo, cumbia and ranchera nodding to the vibrant soundscape of the Arizona-Sonoran borderlands to the big band energy of Tito Puente.

Mendoza has “the cumbia and mamba in his DNA,” but can be “as punk as the Sex Pistols and as violent as Perez Prado,” gushed Camilo Lara of Mexican Institute of Sound. Joey Burns of Calexico calls them among “the best live bands out there. Their music delves into a myriad of directions, rhythms and moods, big band orchestrations mixed with lo fi electronica, vocals en Español together with moving instrumentals.”

They play the Plaza Stage at 8 p.m, featuring the powerhouse vocals and percussion skills of Ozzy Acosta.

Other notable acts on the Plaza main stage Saturday: