NB Roots and Branches is a free, one-day, acoustic music festival by and for the people taking place July 22, 2023. The festival is free to all, devoted to ensuring the various diverse folk communities of the city are represented on the performance schedule, and it aims to have a positive impact on the downtown New Bedford community. Roots and Branches will be hosting local and regional performers of true traditional music, indie folk, acoustic roots rock, contemporary songwriting, and further flung compositional & exploratory acoustic music. In direct collaboration with our fiscal sponsor, Downtown New Bedford Inc, the festival is creating unique indoor “stages” in New Bedford’s small business including Calico, Pour Farm Tavern, April Evans Beauty Salon, and Destination Soups. Each venue functions as a unique listening concert while simultaneously bringing attendees directly into the showrooms of the vibrant downtown business community. The outdoor traditional music performance areas will be hosted in downtown New Bedford’s Wing’s Court as an official city event sponsored by Destination New Bedford, the tourism department of New Bedford city government. The park directly abuts our concert venues. In those outdoor spaces, authentic experiences of 6 different traditional music cultures will include some scheduled events where festival goers can directly participate in the music making. In addition, our traditional music areas will have performances that represent the demographics of the city and the region as a whole with exciting opportunities to connect our shared present through our various rich and diverse pasts.