When the Smithsonian Folklife Program staff decided to use "community" as the theme of the 1978 presentation, they were not grafting an idea onto the Festival, but featuring an aspect of the Festival that has been present throughout its history. "Community" has been involved in the past 11 festivals in many ways.

Each participant comes from and represents a community--the community he or she lives in, or a community of people who are associated with each other because of shared traditional culture. Many Festival presentations have been community events: apple-butter making, quilting bees, or a Yemenite wedding.

Other Festival events have ...