Happy Fourth of July! Before the rainy weather drove us inside the Arts and Industries Building, experts and artisans from California and Basque country shared their traditions and innovations with visitors on the National Mall. The festivities continued indoors at the Arts and Industries Stage and Festival Marketplace.
We thank our visitors for being patient as we made the transition indoors with limited programming. In a storm, our highest priority is the safety of you and the participants.
Each morning, Folklife Festival staff updates the daily schedules on whiteboard signs. Here’s Sounds of California intern Katie Radishofski adding some diablos illustrations to La Cueva. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
The bertsolaris shared their Basque oral poetry tradition at the Frontoia, improvising verses about Independence Day and finding love. Left to right: Irati Anda, Xabier Paya, and Martin Goicoechea. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
House of Angklung, an Indonesian performance group in D.C., brought their bamboo rattles for visitors to play. Each instrument makes only one note, but played together as a community we can make a melody. Today’s melody was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
With their loud bells and rainbow-ribboned cone hats, the Joaldunak procession is quite a spectacle, but their process of getting dressed is quite an event as well. It takes a team to transform into sheep. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
The Basque Joaldunak and the Californian Mixteco groups performed together for the first time today in the Sounds of California Stage & Plaza. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
FandangObon gave their last Folklife Festival performances today, with Nancy Sekizawa and Nobuko Miyamoto leading the singing and dancing. Tomorrow they head back to Los Angeles. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Meet some of the Folklife Festival staff! Julia Avery-Shapiro (middle) is our accessibility coordinator, ensuring that the site is wheelchair-accessible and that as many events as possible have ASL interpreters and real-time captioning. Bill Yarbrough and Justin Hensley lead our operations team, making sure everything happens efficiently, promptly, and safely. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
The Basque chefs cooked up a “Basque skillet,” or salt aneko. They explained that this heavy dish could feed a group of Americans, but only one Basque! Photo by Ravon Ruffin, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
After the rain drove us out of the tents, we moved our events inside the Arts and Industries Building. Throughout the Festival, visitors can see this artwork on display: Goon Garage featuring The Rice Rocket by Clement Hanami, part of the On the Move program. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Music and dance performances continued inside the west wing of the Arts and Industries Building. Visitors said agur (goodbye) to Basque American rock band Amuma Says No, who head back to Boise, Idaho, tomorrow. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
On July 7 we celebrate San Fermin Day, known for the “running of the bulls.” The evening concert features the Los Angeles band Armenian Public Radio, accompanied by TmbaTa, a youth orchestra coming all the way from Yerevan, Armenia. See you on the Mall!
Elisa Hough is the editor for the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Join our email list for the latest news from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Support the Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, sustainability projects, educational outreach, and more.
