The 2026 North Carolina Folk Festival took over downtown Greensboro this weekend — and it was one for the history books.

Well over 100,000 people came out to see more than 80 acts over three days, with Saturday night headliners The Roots turning out a sea of people as we’ve never seen downtown.

We’ve put together a photo gallery, including some submitted by you.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones headlined Friday night, giving a performance people talked about all weekend. (Photo by Noah Lenstra)
The Blue & Gold Marching Machine from N.C. A&T State University showed the festival what Aggie Pride is all about. (Photo by Noah Lenstra)
Medicine Singers featuring Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Yonatan Gat of Monotonix. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Maura Shawn Scanlin and Conor Hearn, the contemporary folk duo Rakish. (Photo by Lindsay Stephens)
NC Folk Festival Street Dance Battle presented by GSOul. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
(Joe Killian for The Assembly)
(Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Capoeira lessons with NC Brazilian Arts. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Air Faeries warming up. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
The Roots play to a record-setting Saturday night crowd. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Black Thought of The Roots flanked by an interpreter. (Photo by Amy Kemp)
The Roots onstage Saturday. (Photo by Amanda Lehmert)
The Pryle downtown hosted a Saturday afterparty, with Questlove of The Roots coming directly from their performance to do a DJ set. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Questlove at The Pyrle (Joe Killian for The Assembly)
Questlove at The Pyrle (Photo by Amy Kemp)
(Joe Killian for The Assembly)

Joe Killian is The Assembly's Greensboro editor. He joined us from NC Newsline, where he was senior investigative reporter. He spent a decade at The News & Record covering cops and courts, higher education, and government.