Smithsonian Folklife Festival

About the Festival

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, experience living traditions from around the world. Our goal is to work with communities to strengthen and preserve their cultures and share them with you on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Featured Programs

Northeast Brazil

Celebrate the creative spirit of Brazil’s northeast and explore how its communities shape and respond to the environments surrounding them.
United Arab Emirates

From poetry to perfume, explore past and present traditions of the region as resources for connecting communities and envisioning a sustainable future.
Earth Optimism

Meet scientists, anthropologists, and other specialists to learn about conservation in action at the Smithsonian and in our communities.
Solar Decathlon

In the culmination of the contest hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, tour five solar homes and learn about ways to conserve energy at home.

Festival 101

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, established in 1967, honors contemporary living cultural traditions and celebrates those who practice and sustain them. Produced annually by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage on the National Mall, the Festival has featured participants from all fifty states and more than one hundred countries.

In 2020, the Festival explores how cultural knowledge—from religion to design to science—shapes the ways we understand, experience, and respond to ever-changing natural, social, and built environments. As always, visitors can enjoy live music and dance presentations, craft workshops, cooking demonstrations, and our evening concert series.

Festival Blog

March 30, 2020
I’m in the Band ✕ D.C.: The Social Power of Music, Episode 1: First Ladies DJ Collective
January 29, 2020
Ginseng: The Man-Root That Has Shaped Mankind
December 10, 2019
“This Is a D.C. Thing!” Head-Roc on Social Issues in Music
December 5, 2019
“Where’s the DJ?” How Women DJs in D.C. Are Shaking Up the Scene

Videos

Festival Videos

50 YEARS | 50 OBJECTS

Past Programs

2011 Festival
Colombia: The Nature of Culture

Visitors journeyed through presentations of the rich bio-cultural diversity of Colombia and explored how Colombian cultural expressions are inextricably connected to their distinctive environments.
1993 Festival
U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Based on research in the rich and dynamic living culture of the border, the program provided a glimpse at its histories, diverse communities, local and regional identities, and its music, arts, crafts, healing practices, foodways, and narrative.
1991 Festival
Forest, Field and Sea: Folklife in Indonesia

Communities from three provinces displayed some of the indigenous skills and traditional knowledge that have developed in environments outside the urban centers and fertile river valleys of the Indonesian heartland.