Okemah’s 21st Annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival will be held on Wednesday, July 11 through Sunday, July 15.

Join as the life, legacy and music of Woody Guthrie will be celebrated.

This festival began in 1997, when a group of volunteers gathered with one mission, to honor Woody Guthrie’s music and philosophy that everyone has worth, none more or none less than another.

The journey bagin with creating a national destination from Woody’s hometown of Okemah.

The inaurgural 1998 festival included Guthrie’s son, Arlo, British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael and The Red Dirt Rangers along with headliners Tom Paxton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Peter Keane, Tom Skinner and Kevin Welch.

For the first festival, the Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned Native American sculptor Dan Brook to cast a full-body bronze statue of Guthrie and his guitar, complete with the guitar’s well-known inscription: “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Today, the statue is enveloped with a beautiful patina from the reaction of the medium with oxygen in the air. You can find the statue situated between two murals of Woody in a small park between 3rd and 4th streets along Broadway in the heart of downtown Okemah.

The spirit of Woody Guthrie is revised during the month of July when over 10,000 attendees from California to New York City to Denmark to Scotland gather in this town in Okfuskee County.

For a full schedule or for more information, visit: Woodyfest.com.