2025 Festival, Youth and the Future of Culture,

Festival in Frame: Photos from Day One

July 2, 2025 | Cassie Roshu | Comments

“Youth are not a monolith and cannot be easily defined,” lead curator Michelle Banks stressed during the Welcome Ceremony, inside the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building. “They’re poetic, and multilingual, contemporary and old-school. They vibe with hip-hop, and country and classical and dembow and cumbia and jazz and K-pop and all things in between.”

Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

“It’s not just an age, it’s also an energy. And that energy is gathered here.”
—Michelle Banks, lead curator

The first day of this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival reaped value deeper than what somebody might see at face value. Today’s acts of cultural preservation energized the National Mall, where participants and visitors laughed over cross-generational exchange of shared experiences, bands played at picnic tables between sets, visitors laid face-up in the grass and breathed in blue sky, drums beat over timeless storytelling, and the hum of collaboration seamlessly blended the Festival grounds’ sounds.

In this daily photo series, we’ll share some of our favorite snapshots taken by the Festival’s team of staff and volunteer photographers. We hope you’ll follow along on the Festival Blog, and share your own photos on social media, using the hashtag #2025Folklife.

A seated crowd faces musicians on stage, out of focus. In the foreground, people take videos with their smartphones, and a child holds a fan with the program name: Youth and the Future of Culture. — Visitors and participants filled the Arts + Industries Building to officially kick off the fifty-eight annual Folklife Festival.
Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Several musicians play string instruments on an outdoor stage, wearing matching maroon jackets and black pants or skirts. The musician in front smiles broadly at the camera. — Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando kicked off the concerts on the Festival Main Stage, representing Mexican American musical traditions in Southern California.
Photo by James Dacey, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

A young brother and sister stand outside in the grass on a sunny day with a white tent in the background behind them. They hold rope lassos and prepare to lasso a small model of a steer. — Tesslee and Casten Carter taught visitors the proper way to lasso—the Carter family, of Pingree, Idaho, are fourth-generation ranchers, farmers, and craftspeople.
Photo by Grace Bowie, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

A young boy plays with a lacrosse stick on a grassy field, with the Washington Monument looming in the background. — Festival visitors learn how to play *peekitahaminki* (lacrosse) with Myaamia students. The sport is one of the oldest in North America and one of the fastest growing today.
Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

One man stands on top of wooden scaffolding, pulling a long saw up to his sternum. Below him, underneath the scaffolding, another man holds the other handle of the saw, keeping it balanced as they saw down a wood log. In the background behind them is a tent with images of George Washington’s Mount Vernon. — Steve Fancsali, preservation carpenter at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, works with preservation trades intern Braden Crutchmer to saw a wooden log. They were quick to point out that in the eighteenth century, there would not have been OSHA-compliant wood railing on either side of the platform!
Photo by Grace Bowie, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Bolivian artist Carlos Andres Orellano Patino, known as Andes MC, performs hip-hop in Spanish at the Wordsmiths’ Cafe alongside Eber Miranda. Andes MC remains committed to his mission of representing his community and staying true to the roots of underground rap, taking his message beyond borders.

Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Two young men stand facing each other, hunched over working to split a wooden log. Their faces show the effort and the heat of the day. Behind them, a group of individuals observes, including a person in a National Park Service uniform. — Omarion Thompson and Tyrone Vick, students at the Stephen T. Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School in New York City, work together to split a log. They work with their mentor Matthew Jacobs, director of preservation, education and youth engagement, National Parks of New York Harbor (pictured in the background in an NPS uniform), as a part of the NPS’ Historic Preservation Training Center’s Traditional Trades Advancement Program.
Photo by Mark Roth, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

A woman holds on to a younger girl’s hands, guiding her through the process of weaving; two people watch as the lesson happens; weaved products hang on a blue tent wall behind the woman and girl. — Rosie Say, a weaver with the Karen Weaving Circle, walks a young visitor through the crafting process.
Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Di’Orr Greenwood (Diné) returns to the Festival for the second year in a row, representing skating and skate arts in Indigenous communities. In 2024, she collaborated with Nike to design the SB Dunk Hi Decons on display here.

Photo by Grace Bowie, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Come back for more tomorrow! Join the Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers from Alaska to learn more about their regalia, vibe to soul classics performed by Stax Music Academy‘s ensemble, hear a bilingual storybook reading by college-age authors from Shout Mouse Press, and so much more. In the evening, hear local talent on the Festival Main Stage in our first featured concert of the summer, Homegrown Futures: The Sound of D.C.

Cassie Roshu is a media intern at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Editor and web content manager Elisa Hough and social media specialist Grace Bowie contributed.