The 24th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference is slated for February 22-26, 2012 at the Downtown Marriott in Memphis, Tennessee. Financial savings are in the offing through early-bird registration that is open through Dec. 2, while forms also are available on the Folk Alliance International website (www.folk.org) until then for performing artists to apply for Performance Alley official showcase opportunities.

Drawing more than 2,000 people each year and ranked among the five largest music conferences in North America, the International Folk Alliance Conference will feature three days of panel discussions and workshops, film screenings, regional and peer group meetings, instrument clinics and popular singer-songwriter critique sessions, nightly open mics, as well as four nights of artist performances — including 200 juried music showcases and hundreds of private in-room showcases that extend late into the night (or early morning hours).

Bob Lefsetz, author of the insightful music industry e-newsletter that bears his name, will be the keynote speaker. Also slated are centennial tributes to Woody Guthrie, Bill Monroe and Robert Johnson, as well as a 40th anniversary tribute to the film Deliverance with actor and singer-songwriter Ronny Cox, the annual Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Awards and Honors, and a special remembrance of Hazel Dickens, who died in April. As always, the conference will boast a large exhibit hall with more than 100 exhibitors and plenty of opportunities for networking and jamming. And the city of Memphis and its many music-related attractions beckons just outside the host hotel’s doors.

The 2012 International Folk Alliance Conference will be the last one to take place in Memphis for a while. The conference will be held in Toronto, Canada in February 2013, prior to moving to Kansas City, Missouri the following year.

Folk Alliance International aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music, dance and related performing arts through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development.