About fifty-two percent of the world’s population is under thirty, the highest in recorded history. Young people around the globe are working across generations and communities to understand and shape the world they will inherit. At the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Looking Forward highlights their stories, creativity, and aspirations.

From media production to traditional building trades, from Indigenous language reclamation to lowrider-car innovations, and more, Festival participants will express who they are in the present with an eye toward a vibrant, sustainable future.

Across the Western Hemisphere, thousands of Indigenous communities are sustaining traditional practices and contributing to a more equitable future. Today, these individuals and nations define who they are, through their own stories in their own words.

At the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall, Indigenous artists and makers, professional chefs and home cooks, musicians, dancers, athletes, and storytellers demonstrated the depth of multigenerational traditions as well as new, innovative approaches to cultural expression.