Festival Blog

During the first Festival Community Day at the 2015 Festival, Peruvian dancer Steve Cotaquispe, who was born in Ayacucho, came from New York to present the danza de las tijeras—the scissors dance.

The Folklife Festival grounds filled to the brim on this federal holiday, as thousands of tourists and D.C. residents got an intimate view of some of Peru’s cultural heritage and continued a nonstop schedule of artisan workshops and lively performances.

Of the many animals significant to Peruvian traditional culture, one is especially celebrated in the Andes: the alpaca. Smaller than their llama cousins, alpacas are too small to use as pack animals

The members of Afro-Peruvian dance group Tutuma use their feet as percussion instruments with tap-like zapateo steps that have evolved from the historical dance traditions of enslaved Africans in Peru.

The Festival’s seventh day brought many important guests. The new Secretary of the Smithsonian , David Skorton, spent his second day on the job exploring the Perú: Pachamama program.

Most Americans think of “constellations” as linear figures drawn by connecting individual stars. We often associate them with Greek or Roman myths, but many other cultures attach their own stories to shapes they see in the night sky.

Peru is a country of great linguistic diversity. While Spanish is used widely throughout the country, Peru is also home to more than ninety indigenous languages.

Amazonian painter Brus Rubio creates abstract scenes of Huitoto-Bora myths, local stories, and songs in addition to singing and playing the manguaré, a pair of drums made from tree trunks.

After a two-day break and a relentless overnight thunderstorm, the Folklife Festival returned to the National Mall. Thanks to the efforts of our Smithsonian colleagues and the National Park Service staff, the Festival site was able to open