Festival Blog

See an interactive display of photographs from early years of the Folklife Festival and our 50th anniversary.

“Poetry is all about love, ultimately. And we need poems like we need as much love as possible.”

The Folklife Festival returned to the National Mall today after a rainy and truncated Thursday, bringing artists, radio broadcasters, dancers, clowns, and more to the public.

The anticipation is palpable in the Circus Science tent. Young visitors strain forward from their perches on chairs two sizes too big for them, or from front-row seats on the grass.

In a discussion session called “Girlhood on the Move,” participants from Texas via Mexico and Washington, D.C., via Central America shared their feelings on the bold differences between the childhood experiences of mothers and daughters.

The danger of organizing a major event around the Fourth of July: a constant threat of summer storms.

This week in the Circus Arts Cookhouse, cook Amity Stoddard prepared a historical circus dish, “Old Settler’s Baked Beans,” following Pat Milligan’s original recipe.

On the morning of June 30, 2017, the United States gained a new crop of citizens with the first of two Citizenship Ceremonies at the Folklife Festival.

On the Folklife Festival’s 50th anniversary, one thing I’ve learned is that milestones are tricky business. They simultaneously fill you with a soaring sense of pride and the overwhelming reality of how much more there is to do.