The Texas Folklife Festival is an annual event sponsored by the Institute of Texan Cultures celebrating the many ethnicities represented in the population of Texas. The event will hold its 40th festival in 2011. Many different ethnic groups will be represented at the 2011 Festival, to be held on the grounds of the Institute in HemisFair Park in San Antonio, Texas from June 10 to June 12.

The Texas Folklife Festival was modeled after the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival, which was held in Washington, D.C. in 1968. On behalf of the Institute of Texan Cultures (which was built as part of the Texan Pavilion for the 1968 World’s Fair), O.T. Baker attended the first Smithsonian Folklife Festival and returned home with big plans—to replicate the event in San Antonio. And the wheels were set in motion.

The concept of creating a festival that brought together different ethnic groups to celebrate and share their traditions was ingenious. Proceeds from the event would be given back to the participating cultures so the customs would continue to stay alive and be passed on through the generations. And, most importantly, the event’s focus directly correlated to the mission of the Institute of Texan Cultures.

Texas (ⁱ/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km²), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.

During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.

A Folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music.

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Urkult Näsåker, Ångermanland held August each year is purportedly Sweden's the largest world music festival.