DeltaFest: A Recap
September 23rd, 2025
Last week, more than 500 people from across the Deep South—and thousands more online—gathered in Jackson, Mississippi for the inaugural Delta Fest, an economic activation festival dedicated to expanding ownership, entrepreneurship, and community infrastructure across one of the most overlooked regions of the country.
Over three days, Delta Fest convened mayors, business owners, creatives, financial institutions, nonprofits, investors, funders, and community leaders to participate in a movement-building space. It was a mixture of strategic discussions and cultural celebration that was designed to catalyze 10-year journey toward shared prosperity.
A Festival Built Around Three Pillars of Wealth
Delta Fest structured the entire experience around three interconnected pillars—each representing a critical pathway to economic power in Black, rural, and historically disinvested communities. A full recap of the convening can be found here: https://www.deltafest.money/agenda
Ownership
These sessions explored how individuals and communities can build and secure wealth through real estate, cooperative models, land stewardship, intellectual property, and legacy assets. The core message focused on how wealth is not abstract but rather built through assets that generate income and remain in community hands.
Entrepreneurship
Speakers in the business ownership track highlighted the persistent capital gaps in the South and underscored how CDFIs like HOPE are positioned to fill them. Entrepreneurs at every stage, from first-time side hustlers to seasoned founders, should have increased access to tools that help scale their businesses, secure capital, and build regional networks. Speakers included Kendra Key, Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Center for Growth and Excellence, Cortney Woodruff, co-founder of Assemble, and others.
Community Infrastructure
This track centered the systems that make wealth possible: housing, healthcare, food access, cultural institutions, education pipelines, and nonprofit infrastructure.
Speakers underscored that strong communities require strong systems—and systems require intentional, long-term investment.
Across all three tracks, speakers emphasized an asset-based approach that incorporates the untapped economic potential of the Delta region of the Southeastern region of the nation instead of focusing on scarcity or a deficit model which is often how this region is framed.
A Gathering of Leaders, Doers, and Visionaries
One of the highlights of Delta Fest was the Mayors’ Plenary, featuring the leaders of four major Deep South cities:
- Mayor John Horhn, Jackson, MS
- Mayor Steven Reed, Montgomery, AL
- Mayor Frank Scott Jr., Little Rock, AR
- Mayor Randall Woodfin, Birmingham, AL
Mayors discussed practical solutions to increasing affordable housing, financial empowerment, and economic development such as leveraging public-private partnerships, deploying low-interest financing, strengthening educational and workforce pipelines, and rebuilding trust with communities traditionally excluded from power. Mayor Scott captured the inclusive nature of the solutions succinctly: “It’s no longer just a P3. It’s a P4. Public, private, philanthropic partnerships will be critical in closing gaps in our communities.”
Why Delta Fest Matters Now
The Deep South sits at a nexus of challenges and opportunities. Communities across Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and the Black Belt face entrenched barriers—bank closures, underinvestment, housing shortages, and limited capital pipelines. Yet the region is also home to growth areas in affordable housing, business ownership, and economic development. Delta Fest convened community and regional leaders to recognize the Deep South as investment opportunity with an emphasis on a coordinated, long-term strategy for wealth building and economic mobility.
What’s Next: A 10-Year Vision
DeltaFest serves as the beginning of a decade long roadmap that aims to:
- Expand equitable capital access
- Strengthen small business ecosystems
- Increase homeownership and land retention
- Grow Black-owned assets across industries
- Support anchor institutions and community infrastructure
- Build cross-state coalitions that move from inspiration to implementation
DeltaFest marked a strategic inflection point for economic opportunity in the Deep South. By combining asset-based messaging, multistakeholder collaboration and regionally grounded ambition, the event offered a powerful template for how non-profits, philanthropy, business owners, municipalities, financial institutions, and community stakeholders can amplify impact and scale community wealth over the next 10 years.
Share this article.
