Along with the usual bustle that accompanies Festival planning were questions about the Festival's use of the National Mall. Since its inception, the Festival has traveled the length and breadth of this venerable space between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. What made the 2015 Festival unique was not the space - north of the National Air and Space Museum - but the fact that it featured a single country, Peru.

As conceived by the bi-national curatorial team, the twelve case studies presented explored important questions about the nature of connectivity, the construction of a shared identity in the face of extraordinary diversity, and history's influence on contemporary cultural production. In those questions, the Peru program found common cause with previous Festivals, and the answers it uncovered will echo in coming years.

The spirit of the Festival is found in the stories people share. The artisans and cooks, dancers and musicians featured deserved the thanks of visitors, as did the many Peruvians in the United States whose enthusiasm for the Festival was a salient reminder that those stories are American stories as well.

The 2015 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 24-28 and July 1-5) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 3rd Street and 4th Street, north of the National Museum of the American Indian. It featured one program and special events including the Rinzler Concert.