Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an international exposition of living cultural heritage annually produced outdoors on the National Mall of the United States in Washington, D.C., by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Our free Festival takes place for two weeks every summer overlapping the Fourth of July holiday. It is an educational presentation that features cultural exemplars. We invite visitors to sing and dance along, try craft and game workshops, learn traditional recipes, ask questions, and take part in this unique cultural exchange.

In 2017 we will feature Circus Arts, American Folk: Celebrating the NEA National Heritage Fellows, and more to be announced. We hope you can come and share your own stories of five decades of cultural heritage on the National Mall.