DCist Preview: Smithsonian Folklife Festival
The Smithsonian's annual Folk Life Festival begins today on the National Mall. It runs from June 25 to June 29, as well as July 2 to 6. Daytime events are open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; special evening events begin at 6 p.m. when scheduled. Below are some of the highlights we've picked out, and we encourage you to check their full online schedule and map.
This year's festival celebrates three themes: Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon, NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond, and Texas: A Celebration of Food, Music and Wine. One might think it's an odd combination, but Festival Director Diana Parker explains that, while this year's themes were selected based on individual merit and logistical feasibility, there are more than a few connections. For example, NASA's Johnson Space Center resides in Texas; a former dean's wife at UT El Paso's love for Buhtanese-style buildings heavily influenced the campus' architecture; Bhutan's postage stamps commemorate America's space program. OK, so it's a reach.
Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon
Read all about the tiny, mountainous country of Bhutan and its culture in this PDF from the Smithsonian. The Bhutan area of the festival will feature more than 100 Bhutanese artists, dancers, craftspeople, cooks, and farmers, demonstrating and discussing their land and culture. Highlights include the demonstration of Bhutan’s Thirteen Traditional Arts (or zorig chusum, pictured left), highly choreographed and symbolic masked dances, incense making, wood carving, archery (Bhutan's national sport), and cooking demonstrations.
NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond
Learn more about NASA, its origins, its present day, and its future, set among some really cool photographs in this PDF from the Smithsonian. In the NASA area of the festival, visitors will be able to meet and mingle with a variety of NASA personnel, so those of you astronaut-fantasizers, take note. Activities include hands-on demonstrations, the telling of oral histories, and exhibits. Highlights include a crew exploration vehicle, a moon buggy, information about future missions, the display of a space shuttle main engine, a robotics station, space food packaging, and menu creation.
Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food, and Wine
Check out the land of all things big, spurred and booted in Smithsonian's PDF, including a surprising number of pages on the accordion (which some controversially claim is the state's instrument). In the festival's Texan section, sip some wine and chow some cow, all while listening to the Lone Star State's blues, swing, conjunto, country and western, gospel, and tejano music. Discussions and demonstrations will range from winemaking to Texas history to some typical and not-so-typical Texan food traditions, including Vietnamese soups, barbeque, crawfish, enchaladas, kolach, and chicken fried steak. What, no Shiner?
The festival opens this Wednesday with an 11 a.m. ceremony on the Texas Dancehall. Evening concerts are scheduled for every day except tonight and Sunday, July 6. Six of nine performances are entirely Texan; one is entirely Bhutan; July 3rd's performance brings together artists from the Bhutan Royal Academy of Performing Arts, the Buddhist Monk Community, and Mariachi Los Arrieros for what sounds like quite a memorable concert. Additionally, on Saturday, June 28, the festival presents the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert
in honor of René López, and featuring Grupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino.
More information on the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival can be found on their website.