As I move into my role as JSAM editor beginning with this issue, I fondly recall attending my first SAM conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, 2012. I feel an immense amount of gratitude to be named editor of its journal only seven years later, and I look forward to continuing JSAM’s record of publishing innovative and exceptional scholarship, starting with this special issue on music festivals.

To Loren Kajikawa, thank you for your excellent work during your tenure as editor and for being a more than gracious colleague as I shadowed your work this past year. To Charles Cevallos, thank you for your hard work as assistant editor. To the outgoing media review editors, William Gibbons and Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, thank you both for your service to the journal and society. On behalf of Stephen Stacks, assistant editor, Travis Stimeling, book review editor, and Gina Bombola and Jessica L. Getman, media review editors, we look forward to providing JSAM’s readers with new and exciting scholarship on music of the Americas.