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  • Day Nine: Top 10 Photos

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    As the Festival reaches its finale, many of artists and craftspeople have nearly completed the projects they have been working on throughout the past two weeks. The tabletop bottle-cap mosaic that visitors have been adding to in The Workshop now makes the perfect backdrop for photos. In the Hyurasenyak, Armenian weaver presented a silk carpet, which can take months or a year to complete, and ceremoniously cut it from its loom.

    Today also saw both the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls and the Colla Joves Xiquets de Valls perform their human towers side by side, and a special fireworks display by the Catalan beasts and devils.

    The Festival ends tomorrow, but there’s still time to check out all of our incredible programs. If you’re coming with kids, start the day by earning the global folklorist badge in the Marketplace. Learn about the Armenian holiday Vardavar—known for the activity of splashing each other with water—and join in some celebratory dances on the Aygi Stage. Discuss crafts of Cameroonian fashion with designer Kibonen. Make sure you attend the Soul & Ink live screen-printing session to customize an original poster to take home.

    Our final evening concert is Sisterfire, which celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Roadwork, a multiracial coalition that puts women artists on the road globally. Their diverse blend of influences from East African retro pop and jazz to classical canon and beatboxing end the 2018 Folklife Festival and provide a taste of our 2019 theme: the social power of music.

    Elisa Hough is the editor for the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Rachel Barton is the media intern for the 2018 Folklife Festival. Together they are Team Festival Blog.


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