That first festival was a long weekend of music, featuring Dizzy Gillespie as the headliner artist.
Over the next two decades, the annual celebration has evolved into a ten-day Festival including over 250 events with music at locations throughout northwest Alabama.
The Handy Festival has been selected as a Top Ten Event in Alabama; a three time Cultural Olympiad Designee by Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games; a Location/Destination on the National Geographic Appalachian Regional Commission's Featured Sites Map; and a Top Twenty event in the Southeast since 1986 by Southeast Tourism Society.
The festival presents music of many varieties, including rock, pop, gospel, R & B and jazz.
The roster of jazz musicians, known as the "Festival All-Stars," or the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars, includes noted musicians from all over the United States, such as guitarist Mundell Lowe, guitarist Lloyd Wells, drummer Bill Goodwin, pianist Laszlo Gardony, vibraphonist Chuck Redd, pianist / vocalist Johnny O'Neal, trumpeter Ken Watters, pianist / vocalist Ray Reach (Director of Student Jazz Programs at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame), pianist Gary Motley and flutist Holly Hofmann.