Skip to main content

Festival Blog

  • 2022 Festival,

    Day Five: Top Ten Photos

    June 26, 2022 | Annabella Hoge, Elisa Hough | Comments

    Our Sunday began with an early Morning on the Mall, a program partnership with Access Smithsonian to provide sensory-friendly activities for families of children, teenagers, and young adults who are neurodiverse. In case you missed it, you can still register for another Morning on the Mall on July 2 at 9:30 a.m.

    Kids painted palm branch pieces from the United Arab Emirates in the Palm Studio and learned about the value of the tree in the region at the Crossroads Stage. Chef Elyssa Kaplan from World Central Kitchen spoke in Festival Foodways about the organization’s mission to assist and comfort in times of crisis. An impromptu event at the Festival Marketplace featured Fijian weavers and musicians displaying their craft.

    The afternoon ended with a lovely musical preview of the 2023 Festival program The Ozarks: Faces and Facets of a Region, as a few visitors and participants took to the gravel dance floor. As banjo player Nathan McAlister said, in the Ozarks, “Dancing is the big thing. Music is what makes it happen.”

    Four people sit at a table outside, painting palm-sized pieces of wood blue.
    Visitors painted palm with Emirati artist Azza Al Qubaisi during quiet Morning on the Mall programming before the Festival opened to the general public.
    Photo by Ronald Villasante, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Through a cutout in a white box, a small child peers out. Turquoise and purple drawings on the box.
    Come out and play in the Come Out and Play area! IKEA donated kids’ furniture for the Earth Optimism × Folklife program for young visitors to get creative and have fun.
    Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    A falcon wearing a leather hood stands on an astroturf pedestal, looking toward the camera. A crowd of people sits watching behind it.
    One of the visiting falcons gave the crowd the silent treatment.
    Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Two women, one standing and one kneeling, paint an outdoor mural with geometric design in orange, pink, and green over red, yellow, and blue background.
    Each day, artists have added more colors and patterns to the UAE mural, set to be complete by the end of the Festival.
    Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Black drawing on a white board, depicting festival tents, crowds of people, and trees. In the front, a tent marked WEAVING.
    During a drawing workshop, UAE cartoonist Abdulla Lutfi displayed his portrayal of the Folklife Festival on the National Mall, including the neighboring weavers and falconers.
    Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Two women sit on the ground, holding up a piece of artwork on barkcloth, printed with geometrical designs. A small crowd of people around them watch and cheer.
    Artisans and musicians with Rise Beyond the Reef presented Festival director Sabrina Lynn Motley with a barkcloth artwork, handmade on the Fijian island of Moce.
    Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Two people hold their hands up to the virtual reality goggles on their faces.
    The participants representing the Maa Trust in Kenya visited fellow Earth Optimism partners from American Prairie to try their virtual reality activation.
    Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Close-up of a mock kitchen cabinat set against sea green wall, containing coffee beans in a jar, silver kettle, yellow and white dishes, bamboo straws, and other kitchenware. A sign reads: Going to a restaurant, grocery store, work, school, picnic, or coffee shop? Don't forget these eco-friendly, reusable and refillable containers and dishware to model your sustainable practices for colleagues, friends, family, and businesses.
    The Amicus Green Building Center has outfitted to the Sustainable Living tent with home goods and inspirations to shop, clean, and live more responsibly.
    Photo by Ronald Villasante, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Four teens performing on stage, each on a string instrument: fiddle, guitar, upright bass, and banjo. A screen behind them shows black and white Smithsonian Folklife Festival logo.
    Sylamore Special, a high-energy teen bluegrass group from Mountain View, Arkansas, in the Ozarks, performed for a full audience in the Folklife Studio.
    Photo by Stanley Turk, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
    Between a crowd of people seated outdoors and a stage just out of frame, four people dance, including a man spinning a woman in a blue gingham dress.
    A quintessential Folklife Festival moment, courtesy of Sylamore Special.
    Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

    Join us on Monday for the end of week one of the Festival! Learn about sustainability at the Smithsonian at Earth Optimism Stories and explore the on-site gardens. Visit Festival Foodways to learn how to make the traditional Filipino dish chicken adobo and Chef Robbie Wood’s smoked wild blue catfish roll featured on the menu at our concessions.

    Stop by the Folklife Studio during the day to learn about disability inclusion in the UAE, the aromas and customs of coffee, and how clean power is used in rural America. Round out your visit with Mother Tongue Film Festival selections in Folklife Studio, features films in Indigenous languages.

    We can’t wait to see you and celebrate the end of our first week, and look forward to another exciting week of Festival activities ahead.

    Annabella Hoge is the 2022 Folklife Festival media intern, and Elisa Hough is the editor at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Together they are Team Top Ten.

    • Support the Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, sustainability projects, educational outreach, and more.
    Support Folklife. Donate Now.

    .