Smithsonian Folklife Festival

About the Festival

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, experience living traditions from around the world. Our goal is to work with communities to strengthen and preserve their cultures and share them with you on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The next Festival is
June 24–28 & July 1 –5, 2020

Looking Ahead

Photo by Cristina Diaz-Carrera

In 2020, we will be back in full form as the Folklife Festival explores how diverse domains of cultural knowledge—from religion to design to science—shape the ways we understand, experience, and respond to ever-changing natural, social, and built environments.

Programs will include regional representations from Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, alongside the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon and Smithsonian Conservation Commons.

Festival Blog

December 10, 2019
“This Is a D.C. Thing!” Head-Roc on Social Issues in Music
December 5, 2019
“Where’s the DJ?” How Women DJs in D.C. Are Shaking Up the Scene
December 2, 2019
Reimagining Classic Games with the Black Girls Handgames Project
November 6, 2019
Asian and American Ginseng: A Plant’s Migration Around the World

Videos

Festival Videos

50 YEARS | 50 OBJECTS

Past Programs

2011 Festival
Colombia: The Nature of Culture

Visitors journeyed through presentations of the rich bio-cultural diversity of Colombia and explored how Colombian cultural expressions are inextricably connected to their distinctive environments.
1993 Festival
U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Based on research in the rich and dynamic living culture of the border, the program provided a glimpse at its histories, diverse communities, local and regional identities, and its music, arts, crafts, healing practices, foodways, and narrative.
1991 Festival
Forest, Field and Sea: Folklife in Indonesia

Communities from three provinces displayed some of the indigenous skills and traditional knowledge that have developed in environments outside the urban centers and fertile river valleys of the Indonesian heartland.