With the annual Riverfest Music Festival less than a month away, anticipation is already building for the 31st iteration of the festival that will take place in Downtown Vicksburg April 20-21.

There’s even more buzz around this year’s festival, as it’s been dubbed Riverfest RevAMPed and promises even more excitement than year’s prior. More than 20 acts will take the stage over the two days, which is more than the festival has seen in any of the past 10 years. 

“It’s so exciting, amplified and epic this year,” Kimball Goodlow, president of Riverfest, said. “Twenty-two bands in two nights, that’s quite a bit. We do have a great staff and a great group of board members that helped put it all together.”

Vice president Johnny L. Reynolds was also excited about how this year’s festival has come together.

“The main thing that we tried to do this year, as a board, was to bring everyone in the city and surrounding cities together to enjoy themselves and make sure everybody has a good time,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to have a variety of food, a variety of entertainment, and everybody is going to feel safe.”

This year’s lineup has a mix of recognizable national acts as well as local musicians slated to perform on one of the two stages. Miki Howard, Uncle Kracker and Tucka, among others, will take the stage on Friday.

On Saturday you can catch Shirley Jones of the Legendary Jones Girls, the Original Lakeside, and even Vicksburg’s own country music star William Michael Morgan in his return to Riverfest. Morgan played at the festival years ago, but since then he has become a national name in the country music scene and is returning to Vicksburg as a headlining act.

Playing earlier on Saturday is Mississippi prodigy Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who has carried the torch of the Mississippi blues scene of old and wowed audiences across the world and even played at the White House.

Board member Angela Jenkins said the festival tried to appeal to every age group and pick the genres of the performers accordingly, while also making sure not to forget about the musical talent already in the town.

“We wanted local first, that was most important,” Jenkins said.

In addition to the music, there will be plenty of food, free daytime family fun activities and an arts and crafts flea market.

A two-day pass can be purchased for $40 or a single day pass for $20. Meanwhile, VIP passes are $100 for a one-day pass, or $200 for a two-day pass. To purchase tickets, visit www.riverfestms.com, or go by LD’s, Michel’s Record Shop, Paper Plus or Zsa Zsa’s Boutique.

Poster’s designed by Vicksburg Artist Tammie Tillotson will be sold for $15 and T-Shirts designed by local high school student Jessie Long will be sold for $20. They are also available at www.riverfestms.com and will be available at the festival as well.

“I didn’t expect to win, there were so many good designs,” Long, who also designed the shirt two years ago, said.

Music will go from 6-12 each night.