Double Decker Arts Festival Is Back and Going Strong in 2025

The last weekend of April is Oxford, Mississippi’s time to shine again, as the annual Double Decker Arts Festival marks its 28th year as the city’s largest spring event celebrating food, music, and the arts.

The season is in full bloom, as over 20 local food vendors will surround the Courthouse Square for the two-day celebration on April 25 and 26, including favorites like Taylor Grocery Special Events Catering, Casa Mexicana, Blind Pig Pub, Moe’s Original BBQ, Sno Biz, Fergndan’s Wood Fired Pizza, Living Foods Café, The Grille at Ole Miss Golf Course, and Oxsicles.

Also, over 100 unique art vendors come from near and far to display original items like handmade jewelry, paintings, and home decor.

A buzz is in the air for weeks before, as locals anticipate the free concert and forecast the release of its lineup. Past festivals have hosted world class artists like Dr. John, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Maggie Rose, Mavis Staples, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, and The Funky Meters.

Thousands are expected to come to the historic downtown Square for the festivities, as the community will be reminded yet again what makes Oxford such a special place to live, beyond just being a charming college town.

The Visit Oxford MS tourism association organizes the event, which is also presented by Ole Miss Athletics, Rowan Oak, and University of Mississippi Museum, but it’s not done without the invaluable help of scores of volunteers and a myriad of sponsorship support. Nicholas Air private jet services will be a Co-Stage Sponsor, and RiverLand Roofing, which has served Oxford and surrounding communities for more than a decade, will present this year’s Sponsor Tent.

The Oxford Police Department has added a new safety feature for this year’s festival, introducing a clear bag policy for attendees entering the North Lamar Main Stage area beginning at 5 pm both Friday and Saturday nights. The measure was designed to encourage a safer, more enjoyable, family-friendly environment.

“Double Decker Arts Festival attracts repeat visitors, including art vendors from across the country, and draws new attendees to Oxford each year,” said Kinney Ferris, Executive Director at Visit Oxford MS. “A dedicated team at Visit Oxford works year-round to plan and execute the event, ensuring its success and growth. The festival has become a beloved tradition, drawing over 100,000 visitors from 35 states to experience the best of food, music, and the arts. In its 28th year, the festival continues to grow, with a $17.8 million economic impact from visitor spending, benefiting the local community last year. We expect similar numbers from this year’s festival.”

The Big Show

Since Oxford imported the Double Decker bus from England back in 1994, the festival has continued to grow year after year, and welcomes a perfect crosscut of touring musicians, along with some local ones.
“I’m really looking forward to two killer days of music on the Square,” said Proud Larry’s owner Scott Caradine, who also books the festival’s musical acts. “I am as excited about this lineup, top to bottom, as I have been for years!”

As if last year’s spectacular lineup wasn’t hard enough to beat, 2025 headliners include critically acclaimed country star Charley Crockett at 9 pm on Friday. Crockett recently signed with Island Records and released a new album in March, Lonesome Drifter. Music fans will also be excited to welcome Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Grace Potter to the stage, which will cap off Saturday at 8:30 pm. Potter has enjoyed numerous sold-out tours and highly revered albums, and co-signs from rock royalty like The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and Bonnie Raitt.

Other big names include Austin, Texas, rock ‘n’ roll group The Band of Heathens, known for their boldly independent approach to music-making; Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban dance/electronic artist Cimafunk, who’s gained a reputation for fusing funk and hip-hop; alternative blues/rock band Houndmouth out of New Albany, Indiana; and Los Angeles, California-based band The Record Company, which also blends blues and rock and just released their latest album, simply titled The 4th Album.

Also to appear is Ole 60, a band that celebrates being “not your father’s country band,” and hails from Hawesville, Kentucky. The group quickly rose to success after their debut EP, three twenty four, released in 2023.
There will also be The Seratones, based out of Shreveport, Louisiana, who are known for their riveting performances and an unusual sound that defies a genre distinction.

Local music also shines

As always, the 2025 music line-up showcases a vast variety of artists. Caradine has said that although he sets out to have something different every year, the main goal is to have “some diversity for musical styles,” and “something that appeals to all demographics and represents our city.”

Although the festival always strives to draw big national acts to the community, there is always the goal of representing homegrown Mississippi talent. “We like to pull some local Oxford people when we can,” he said.
Kicking off the Friday line-up at 5 pm is local favorite The Great Dying, which is the project of Cleveland, Mississippi-native Will Griffith, and blends sinister, lyric-based country with alternative rock. Singer-songwriter Griffith, who accompanies himself on acoustic guitar and often with other band personnel, recently put out his second album release A Constant Goodbye, which was produced at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, and has received shining reviews.

“Growing up in the Delta I had really only wanted to one day play Proud Larry’s in Oxford,” said Griffith. “When I was 17 years old, I attended my first Double Decker and saw Wilco, and R.L. Burnside. I got to meet R.L. for the first time that day. The stage was outside Larry’s at that time. I remember saying After Larry’s, I’m gonna play Double Decker!”

Speaking of Hill Country blues legend R.L. Burnside, his grandson Cedric Burnside has Saturday’s 11:30 am slot and will deliver his unique modern twist on traditional country blues. Cedric won a Grammy award in 2022 in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for his record I Be Trying and was again nominated for his 2025 release Hill Country Love.

“Every time I write an album, it’s always different,” Burnside said. “I’m always looking to express myself a little bit better than I did on the last one and talk about more things that happen in my life. I think that every day that you’re able to open your eyes, life is gonna throw you something to write about and to talk about.” Although now he mainly accompanies himself on guitar or plays with a full band, as a very young man Burnside recorded and toured on drums with his grandfather and also won the Best Blues Drummer category at the Blues Music Awards multiple times.

Cedric will follow the celebrated vocal ensemble, The Rust College A’Cappella Choir, based in Holly Springs, Mississippi, which starts Saturday at 10 am. The choir has been the anchor for Rust College’s cultural heritage since the early 1900s and showcases the amazing talents of its student vocalists.

Water Valley indie-rockers Water Liars are another local band included on the schedule, led by longtime collaborators Justin Kinkel-Schuster (vocals, guitar) and Andrew Bryant (drums, vocals). Known for their intimate live performances and for creating an immersive experience with alluring storytelling, they also have a strong and supportive local fanbase. Water Liars will hit the stage at 2:30 pm on Saturday.

We try to pick and choose who’s touring, who’s got new albums, or who’s kind of up and coming,” said Caradine. “We obviously have a budget and it’s a free festival, which always brings a bit of a challenge.”

Over half of the festival’s budget is spent on the musical acts, which makes the selectivity of the process understandable. “We’ve seen the festival slowly grow in the last few years,” Caradine said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to the music community and entertainment industry in Oxford, from all the different venues and local musicians, but Double Decker has been there building, supporting, advocating, and endorsing regional and local music—and bringing national music to Oxford all for free to the public—better than just about any city in America.”

Additional sponsorships include Faulkner-level sponsors Specialty Orthopedic Group and NE SPARC, and Kid Zone sponsors are The Graduate of Oxford and Tupelo-based Blue Delta Jean Co. Some Square sponsors include My Michelle’s, Starry, The Inn at Ole Miss, Elizabeth Heiskell Catering, Vivian Mae, C Spire, and BankPlus.

Shuttle sponsors are Cutco, and the Come Together Brands of Rafters, The Old Henry, and Ajax Diner, and Oxonian sponsors to join Double Decker include Lucky Elephant Social, Phillips Pediatric, Pause Pain & Wellness, Premier Pools and Spa, Samuels Construction, Shell Plastic Surgery, The Aqua Club, FNB Oxford, Room 2 Room Movers, Take it to the Grove, Thompson Machinery, and others.