For decades, the City of Kannapolis has been at the forefront of providing its residents and visitors with quality and meaningful entertainment experiences in part, as a means of creating economic growth in our community. Over the last decade the City has concentrated its economic development efforts on the Downtown Revitalization Project and attracting industry and jobs to Kannapolis.

The original intent for the Jiggy with the Piggy Festival was to attract visitors to our downtown as our Downtown Revitalization Project began to emerge.  In addition to facilitating an improved quality of life for our residents, the festival was also used to attract visitors to our City, including potential investors to see our vision and the possibilities of their future in Kannapolis. When Jiggy with the Piggy began, the City did not have significant downtown assets to showcase. The Jiggy festival was intended to market and brand Kannapolis in a positive way.

A decade later the City’s vision for a new Downtown Kannapolis has been largely achieved. The Atrium Health Ballpark, Pennant Square Townhomes, the Vida Apartments and Public Parking Deck were built.  West Avenue was transformed into a dynamic new linear park. Both the Gem Theatre and Swanee Theatre have been fully renovated and reopened successfully.  Downtown Kannapolis is now a thriving mixed-use district with over 40 new businesses, restaurants and hundreds of new residents.

It has now been concluded that the time, money and resources needed to produce a large citywide festival such as Jiggy no longer produces the same benefit to the community that it did a decade ago. This conclusion has been reached in part due to the positive impacts of the City’s thriving new Downtown.

It appears to be the right time to evaluate new opportunities for facilitating more cost-effective events to promote and celebrate our City. 

Accordingly, the City will no longer host the Jiggy with the Piggy Festival. The 10th anniversary event held in May of 2024 will be remembered as the last Jiggy Festival.

For the foreseeable future it is unlikely that Jiggy will be replaced with another similar large-scale event.  However, the City has decided it is time to explore other opportunities such as partnering with our downtown businesses through Downtown Kannapolis Inc. (DKI), the Cannon Ballers and others to co-host several smaller events throughout the year and also to expand efforts to promote other areas of the City that need revitalization.

The City will continue to host our award-winning Summer Concert & Movie Series, the Celebration of Lights and other events which accomplish the goal of providing entertainment and community for our residents while attracting visitors and economic development to our City.

As this chapter in Kannapolis’ economic development life closes, many thanks go out to our residents, business community, our non-profit partners, and City staff for all the support for the award-winning Jiggy with the Piggy festival over the years.  Our community’s hard work and dedication have contributed to the City’s successful revitalization.

We hope those in our community and those of you visiting will continue to support and discover Kannapolis by shopping in our downtown businesses, attending a Cannon Ballers game, seeing a movie at the Gem Theatre, enjoying a concert at the Swanee and participating in all the other fun things that are planned for this year and beyond. We are just getting started with the latest chapter in our City’s story and we expect great things for our future.