Founded in 1967 the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an annual event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. that brings participants from around the world.
Narrated by Ossie Davis Edited by Aurélie Beatley
[Catalog No. CFV10467; Copyright 2012 Smithsonian Institution]
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Deborah Santana—author, philanthropist, and advocate for the arts—has long been an active supporter of education, music, and women’s empowerment. On a visit years ago to a school she supports in Ke...
On the opening day of the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Basque trikitixa (accordion) sensation Kepa Junkera headlined the Ralph Rinzler Concert Stage, accompanied by five of the Sorginak. In ...
The spirit of the Godfather of Go-Go spread across the National Mall on July 3 with each bass riff and brass blast of the Chuck Brown Band. After a drizzly evening of varied traditional music in th...
In the final concert of the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Basque folk rock band Korrontzi closed their set with “Belardi,” from the 2015 album Korrontzi Dantzan.
Aukeran is a Basque dance company from Donostia-San Sebastian that performs contemporary pieces inspired by traditional Basque styles. Although they uphold traditional elements throughout their cho...
Aukeran is a professional dance troupe from Basque country founded in 1997 by Edu Muruamendiaraz. The beautiful and graceful professional dancers have backgrounds in both Basque traditional and con...
Amuma Says No is a Basque American band based in Boise, Idaho. Keeping the heart and soul of Basque music in America, the band brings together the best of traditional trikitixa—a duo of accordion a...
Based in San Antonio, Texas, Los Texmaniacs is a Grammy Award-winning Smithsonian Folkways conjunto rock band. At the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival's Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert, they were ...
Herri kirolak, or Basque rural sports, require great amounts of strength, speed, endurance, and willpower. Out of the fifteen traditional rural sports, we showcased nine at the 2016 Smithsonian Fol...
Singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Low Leaf melds traditional instruments with electronic music to create a freeform approach to music that is all her own. Growing up in the San Fernando Va...
Bernat Vidal and his fellow Basque artisans created beautiful pieces during their time on the National Mall as part of the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Many worked with traditional art forms...
Dance troupe sequence of female dancers, dancing a men's style adapted for women with modern-sikh music. [Catalog No. - CFV10263; Copyright - 2010 Smithsonian Institution]
Grupo Cimarrón, virtuosos of the Colombian joropo llanero tradition, performs at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2009. [Catalog No. - CFV10205; Copyright - 2009 Smithsonian Institution]
Legendary funk artist George Clinton has influenced countless musicians and musical genres ranging from hip-hop to rock. Here, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Sm...
The mysterious art of bian lian or face-changing originated in Sichuan Opera, and has long been a closely guarded secret of Chinese performers. Hu Dongxiao of the Zhejiang Wu Opera Troupe performed...
The Garifuna Collective was co-founded and led by Andy Palacio (1960--2008), a musician dedicated to preserving the unique Garifuna language and culture. Today this group of accomplished, multi-gen...
The Sweet Heaven Kings, an exhilarating brass ensemble, is made up of members of the United House of Prayer for All People in the Anacostia community of Washington, D.C. The group delivered this un...
Ulali is a group of First Nations women who combine drums, rattles, and other percussion instruments with their powerful voices to create a potent blend of traditional Native American roots music a...