Smithsonian Folklife Festival part I

Another Smithsonian Folklife Festival under my belt! One of the curious things about Folklife Festivals on the Mall is understanding what they're about! This year it has these odd themes: "Resilient Communities" "California Sounds" and "Basque Country". I couldn't figure out where the Resilient Communities fit in...and the only event that I found with music under the heading of California Sounds featured a Dobro player from Ohio, a classical violinist from Chicago, and Klezmer musician from New York! Not that it wasn't good...just confusing. The Basque Country portions were pure vintage Folklife--the way I like it.

In the California area there were only three things occurring. One was a discussion of population trends and migrations with lots of maps! The other was called "Cueva" and featured some artisans from Oaxaca, Mexico who displayed chaps and masks. The last one was a group of National Heritage Endowment winners who were musicians.

 Beautiful chaps!

 The artisan took down a mask and explained in great detail the craftspersonship and use of the object in celebrating local festivals.

 Nice to she that members of both tribes were clearly present.

There was only one musical performance and ironically none of the musicians were from California!

A snippet from the Dobro player from Ohio!