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• Ringleader Tim Mack from the Imperial OPA Circus congratulated young new citizens of the United States as part of the On the Move program.
  Photo by Daniel Martinez, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• The Smithsonian Honor Guard also participated in the Citizenship Ceremony, with a presentation of the Smithsonian, District of Columbia, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security flags.
  Photo by Robert Friedman, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• The Folklife Festival is full of photo ops. The clowns are used to posing!
  Photo by Vivianne Peckham, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• The Two Hemispheres Wagon is the largest circus wagon ever built, so large that it had to be pulled by forty horses—and so large that it gets a tent all its own and doesn’t even fit in one photo. You can find it right outside the Smithsonian Metro station.
  Photo by Mark Young, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• Muralist Cita Sadeli, a.k.a. CHELOVE, began a portrait of her mother on her side of the Mural Truck.
  Photo by Daniel Martinez, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• Aerialists from Wenatchee Youth Circus performed a series of breathtaking twists and turns, elegant grabs and falls.
  Photo by Brian Barger, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• Amity Stoddard (right) is a circus performer and coach whose showbiz tendencies may come out in her role as a circus cook. Intern Maia Daniel (left) is assisting with the presentations at the Cookhouse.
  Photo by Vivianne Peckham, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• Artist MASPAZ led visitors in an activity creating stickers—inspired by graffiti lettering and prompted by the questions: Where are you from? What do you miss about home?—and wheatpasting them to the rear of the Mural Truck.
  Photo by Daniel Martinez, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• Young visitors hung out in the stroller parking area, in awe of the tightwire-walking Wallenda family.
  Photo by Vivianne Peckham, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
• The Chuck Brown Band closed out the Ralph Rinzler Stage, paying tribute to their founder, D.C. legend and Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown.
  Photo by Joe Furgal, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Click on the image above to see full slideshow

The 50th annual Folklife Festival continues to grow, as more participants arrive in Washington, D.C., and as artwork emerges in our venues. Today we welcomed a group of new American citizens from seventeen countries in a Citizenship Ceremony conducted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. They join a country rich in circus traditions, musical diversity, and creative expression.

Activities start early on Saturday, with demonstrations by weaver Irvin Trujillo and sculptor Verónica Castillo—both NEA National Heritage Fellows—all day in the Marketplace, a capoeira workshop and soccer scrimmages at 11 a.m., and special showcases for D.C. Circus Day.

Want to share your own photos? Add them to our Flickr group, or use #2017Folklife on social media.

Elisa Hough is the editor for the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.