The Folklife Festival continued today with beautiful weather, energetic group dances, mouth-watering cooking demonstrations, and much more. Visitors from all over the United States and abroad were able to speak a few words in the Basque language Euskara, play traditional games of the Kumeyaay community native to the San Diego area, and learn the natural process of salt making.
If you start your visit to the Festival at the information booth in the center of our section on the National Mall, you can get a free Smithsonian Folklife Festival kerchief, a Basque festival tradition. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
The Basque pilota players are right at home at the Frontoia, showing off their handball skills and teaching the sport to young visitors. Photo by Robert Friedman, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Olga Uribe Salaberria worked away on her loom, creating fine textiles. With her engineering background, she analyzed old cloths and restored an antique loom, leading a revival of this textile tradition. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Visitors at the On the Move marked their birthplaces and current homes on world and U.S. maps. How long a piece of yarn is your life’s journey? Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Grupo Nuu Yuku shared their Mixteco (indigenous Oaxacan) festival traditions on the Sounds of California Stage & Plaza and shared scenes with family back home. Hopefully they used the hashtag #2016Folklife. Photo by Robert Friedman, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
The Aukeran contemporary Basque dance troupe led a workshop in the Musika eta Dantza Etxea, getting visitors on their feet. Photo by Robert Friedman, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
FandangObon director Nobuko Miyamoto sings this lyric based on a Japanese saying: “Ichigo ichie—This moment, once in a lifetime.” It’s true of each moment at the Festival, and luckily our video team is there to capture them. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
During the “Fandango Son Jarocho” performance on the Sounds of California Stage & Plaza, Quetzal and Martha Gonzalez’s son, Sandino, joined them on the jarana. Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Jesus Mari Lazkano is a renowned landscape painter from the Basque country. Over the course of the Festival, he is painting two eighteen-foot canvases of expansive seascapes. Photo by Josh Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Salar Nader (left) and Homayoun Sakhi closed out the day on the Ralph Rinzler Concert Stage. At the end of their presentation of traditional Afghan music, they were joined by Basque trikitixa (accordion) sensation Kepa Junkera. Photo by J.B. Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
