The 51st annual Folklife Festival kicks off this week!
Head over to the National Mall starting Wednesday, June 27th and check out this year’s Folklife Festival. The themes this year sound intriguing, Armenia and Catalonia. I always love trying the food and drink from the representative cultures, and this year both will include a focus on wine and its history. Wine tastings anyone?
The Festival is presented by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and co-sponsored by the National Park Service and runs for two long weekends, from June 27-July 1 and again from July 4-July 8.
More on this year’s themes:
Armenia – Discover the influences and contributions of Armenian culture via food, crafts and dance performances. See the program highlights from the Smithsonian Newsdesk.
Catalonia – Learn about this distinct region of Spain, and its distinct Catalan people through contemporary music and their communal ‘vida a la plaça’. See the program highlights from the Smithsonian Newsdesk.
So let’s focus on the food and wine for a second…there will be a number of ‘Tasting and Toasting’ events put on by Armenian wineries, as well as lots of daily wine tastings in the Marketplace. Plus check out this menu! Meat Lahmajun aka Armenian pizza? Yes! Or how about Pollastre a la Catalana aka chicken stew? Please!
There will also be special evening performances and concerts at various stages like the Rinzler Concert Stage, where a series of free evening concerts will be held, including Sisterfire on July 8th to close out the Festival. See the list here.
Find the full schedule of events and activities here.
Pro Tip: Really use the filter features on the schedule to dig in to the details, there’s a lot going on!
It’s free to attend. Buy food and drink!
11:30am-6pm everyday. Evening events/concerts at 6:30pm or later.
The National Mall (Here’s a map of the festival)
Armenia – A vineyard in Vayots Dzor (Photo Credit: Sossi Madzounian, Smithsonian Institution)
A DC Journey 