Free State Festival

10/09/2026

Two great films coming to Haskell - don’t miss them!

Thunderbird Theatre invites the community to two documentary film screenings
Remaining Native, Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m., Auditorium
A documentary told from the perspective of Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future. Director Paige Bethmann (Haudenosaunee) will join a Q&A with Haskell athletes afterward.
Powwow People, Wednesday, October 28, 6:30 p.m., Auditorium
Powwow People is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film. Director Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk-Pechanga), a MacArthur Fellow and Harvard professor, will be joined by Haskell’s Dr. Eric Anderson for a Q&A afterward.

09/21/2026

This should be a great free screening of First They Came for My College + Q&A with Director Patrick Bresnan & panelist Chris Koliba moderated by Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott!

📍Thurs. Sept 24, 7PM | KS Union Woodruff Auditorium

08/27/2026

A fall of music, film & art kicks off with this collaborative concert presented by Love Garden Sounds on September 12! Thank you to The Lawrence Times for covering the arts. The Abstraction Series launches with Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Adams, Shawn E Hansen, and Sterling Holman. Get your tickets & support the best in experimental, improvised, and original music.

A new quarterly concert series focused on bringing experimental jazz, improvised music and other genre-defying acts to Lawrence will soon debut at the Lawrence Arts Center.

06/30/2026

Thank you for making our world a bit bigger this past week. Free State Fest 2026 provided seven full days of films, music, ideas, and art experiences to our shared spaces. Thanks to all who came out to experience the big stories, small moments, yummy food and standing ovations. From our backyards, to Algeria and beyond, we have taken cinematic journeys together and are ready to learn more. We are grateful for the passholders with us all week, the audience members who took a chance and tried something new, our culinary partners for nourishing us, our community collaborators for such creative programming, the brave artists for sharing their stories, our tireless staff & volunteers, and our sponsors for making it all possible.

We are full of gratitude, inspiration and growth because of you & look forward to doing it all again in 2027!

❤️🤍💙💚❤️🤍
National Endowment for the Arts
City of Lawrence, Kansas - Municipal Government
Explore Lawrence
Kansas Public Radio
Lawrence Public Library
Lawrence Business Magazine
African and African-American Studies
KU William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications
KU Film and Media Studies
Hall Center for the Humanities
Liberty Hall
Lawrence Journal-World
Mainline Printing
StonyPoint Graphics
Pride of Gumbo printing
Tom Harper of Stephen's Real Estate
Love Garden Sounds
eighth street taproom
Lawrence Farmers Marketet
Spencer Museum of Art
Meadowlark W**e + Kitchen
Johnny's Tavern in Lawrence
Bates Co.
Terrebonne Cafe
Aladdin’s Cafe
Pickleman's Lawrence

University Daily Kansann
Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center
KU American Studies

06/28/2026

It's the FINAL DAY of and we're going out with a revolutionary bang celebrating artists, movements and moments that inspire change!

Day 7 is all at historic public gathering hub Liberty Hall :
🎨 12pm Paint Me a Road Out of Here with intro by Spencer Museum of Art 's Susan Earle. This powerful film starts with a work of art by Faith Ringgold and ends up being about so much more.

🗞️ 2:30pm Seized - new documentary about the police raid on the Marion County Record presented in partnership with Lawrence Journal-World and KU William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Q&A with Director Sharon Liese, Producer Paul Matyasovsky, & Marion County Record Editor Eric Meyer, former Reporter Phyllis Zorn, and Attorney Bernie Rhodes moderated by Kansas Public Radio's Kaye McIntyre.

🎶 6:30pm Nova '78 presented with support from Tom Harper of Stephen's Real Estate. This beautiful immersion of archival treasures transports you to William S. Burroughs star studded convention in 1978 (the precursor to the 1987 River City Reunion right here in Lawrence)! Q&A with filmmaker Aaron Brookner moderated by photographer Phil Heying.

06/27/2026

Day Six of is packed with films at Lawrence Arts Center!

🎬 12:00pm We kick off with American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez with an intro by Dr. Neill Gabrielle Esquibel-Kennedy, American Studies at KU

🍕2:30pm Slice of Life: Short Documentaries, Q&A + Pizza provided by Johnny's Tavern in Lawrence

🎥 5:00pm Nine Little Indians Film Screening + Q&A with Shannon Kring, Director of Photography Marc Gerke, and Pat Charbonneau moderated by Sarah Bariya of The Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center. Note: this film has sensitive subject matter, so Care Center staff will be in the lobby with resources & support.

🍅 8:00pm Taste of Cinema: Short Films + Culinary Pairings prepared by Meadowlark W**e & Kitchen inspired by the 50th Anniversary of the Lawrence Farmers Market.

A huge thank you to our culinary providers today for keeping us nourished while we experience stories from around the globe!
♥️♥️♥️
📌 Boba & Beyond will be vending in our lobby starting at 11am
📌 Johnny's Tavern will be building community w/ our pizza party film break at 4pm
📌 Pickleman's is kindly providing lunch for festival staff + volunteers
📌 Meadowlark W**e & Kitchen has shown such creativity in preparing such an inspired menu for our short film pairings at 8pm!

06/27/2026

Priceless festival moment… Robyn Hitchcock closed out his sold out concert by treating fans in the lobby with a spontaneous acoustic performance!

06/26/2026

Highlights from yesterday at !
☕️ Artist Jason Wang brought the inspiration and Ling Lung Chen bright the tasty hospitality for our tea & art sampling to start us off!

🎀 We were then guided through healing and empowerment with Healing Ribbons & The Return of the Sacred Rock.

⚽️ The night capped off with soccer on screen. Experimental film fans gathered in the gallery for a rare look at Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and sports fans took over the stage for USA v Türkiye.

06/26/2026

Day 5 of Free State Festival is Robyn Hitchcock Day! Enjoy Robyn in conversation as part of the Lawrence Public Library 780 Series at 6:30pm and in a full band live concert at 8:30pm thanks to support from Love Garden Sounds and eighth street taproom.

🎟 Tickets have all been reserved for both the Conversation and the Concert but we will have waitlists forming an hour before each event (5:30pm for the Conversation) and 6:30pm for the Concert).

06/26/2026

Watch “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” on the big screen this Sunday (6/28) from 12–2PM at the Free State Festival! The documentary follows the journey of Faith Ringgold’s monumental painting “For the Women’s House," created for the women incarcerated at Rikers Island jail. Spencer Curator Susan Earle will introduce this film, speaking about Ringgold’s past visits to Lawrence. 🖌️

🔗 Learn more and purchase tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35591/production/1276355?performanceId=11810912