Festival Blog

Outside the Basque community, Kalakan is best known for accompanying Madonna on her 2012 MDNA tour. Within their community, they are rock stars in their own right

Although busily carving a piece for the Smithsonian at the time, Basque stonecarver Bernat Vidal happily agreed to put his work aside when we asked if he had time for an interview.

This year the Folklife Festival focused on resilient communities: groups of people who have survived and thrived through political oppression, forced migration, social discrimination, and more.

Talo is a flatbread traditionally made from varieties of stone-milled corn found only in Basque country. It commonly accompanies sarteneko, a traditional Basque skillet dish of farm products such as chorizo, bacon, and eggs.

My time as an intern this summer was spent exploring the Smithsonian Folklife Festival through the lens of a camera

During the Folklife Festival, I found myself repeatedly drawn to the Basque pottery tent where ceramicist Blanka Gomez de Segura worked through each day on her wheel.

It was the Fourth of July, and it was raining. Martha González, lead singer and songwriter of GRAMMY-winning band Quetzal, had just finished performing in a lively FandangObon performance at the 2016 Folklife Festival.

When people play sports at the frontoia, the community comes together. As the center of cultural life in the Basque country, the frontoia (pilota handball court) is a place not only to watch games but to participate.

In 1937, Cuban public radio broadcast for the first time the sounds of the batá drums.