Your Guide to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
The time has finally come: participants have arrived from across the United States and nine other nations, and we invite you to meet them at the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival! Join us June 26 through July 1 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the program Indigenous Voices of the Americas.
This guide will help you plan your trip or follow along from afar.
Map
The Festival is located on the National Mall between Third and Seventh streets and inside the National Museum of the American Indian. The closest Metro station is Federal Center SW, and Smithsonian, L’Enfant Plaza, and National Archives stations are within a mile. As parking is extremely limited, we encourage visitors to take Metro, rideshare, walk, or bike, if possible.
When you arrive, stop by an Information Booth on Fourth Street to pick up a schedule for the day and the Festival brochure—or take a sneak peek online.
Schedule
View the full schedule, and sort by accessibility service, category, and stage—both outdoors and inside the museum. Daytime programming runs from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with featured concerts on the Four Directions Stage until 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
You’ll find hourly music and dance performances, cooking demonstrations, artist demonstrations and workshops, hands-on activities, storytelling and discussion sessions, and games and sports activations. Check out our Festival Guide for Kids and Families if you’re bringing along young visitors.
For further exploring, visit the related exhibitions and events at other Smithsonian museums and partner organizations in the city.
Accessibility
We strive to maintain an inclusive environment for visitors of all abilities by offering various accessibility services, including:
A limited number of wheelchairs are available to borrow for use on the Festival grounds. A sensory guide and map are available online and at the Accessibility tent.
On Sunday, June 30, the Festival hosts “Morning on the Mall” for individuals with autism, sensory sensitivities, or others who may benefit from a more relaxed and supported environment. For more information and to register, please email access@si.edu.
Click the image for short biographies of all the Festival’s participants.
Featured Program
Our featured program this year is Indigenous Voices of the Americas: Celebrating the National Museum of the American Indian, highlighting living traditions of Indigenous peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere. At its core, the program honors contemporary and traditional creative expressions, celebrations, and community connections that feed new possibilities for Indigenous futures.
We are honored to welcome back Festival alumni and excited to establish new relationships. More than 250 Indigenous artists and makers, professional chefs and home cooks, musicians, dancers, athletes, and storytellers—representing sixty Indigenous communities—will demonstrate the depth of multigenerational traditions as well as new approaches to cultural expression. See a list of participants along with short bios.
The program is co-presented by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Park Service.
Click the image for the full menu of options available at the Folklife Festival.
Food and Drink
Visit the main concessions tent on Jefferson Drive and two smaller Folklife Cafes for flavorful bites and beverages drawn from community foodways of Peru, Mesoamerica, and the American Southwest, prepared by Metro Catering & Concessions. See the full menu.
Looking for more options? The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe inside the National Museum of the American Indian offers a menu of Native-inspired foods, reflecting the bounties of the various regions, from the Four Corners to coastlines and woodlands.
Want to try cooking Indigenous dishes at home? Our participating chefs and cooks have shared cherished family and community recipes, which they will be preparing in the Foodways demonstration kitchen.
Marketplace
The physical Festival Marketplace is on hiatus this year, but Festival artists will have products for sale in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Roanoke Museum Store on the second floor.
We also invite you to shop the online Marketplace, a partnership with the world’s largest online fair-trade retailer, NOVICA. This virtual shop offers products from Festival participants past and present, including the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco and the Pataxó Indigenous Community.
This Festival season, take $10 off your next purchase over $30 using the code WorldArt10 at checkout. Offer expires July 31, 2024.
Volunteering
Want to get involved? It’s not too late! Register online, or find Volunteer HQ along Third Street, and we’ll assign you a post. We are still looking to fill slots in visitor evaluation, sustainability, and audio documentation. We also need experienced skateboarders to assist with skating workshops and demonstrations.
Photo by Deyane Moses, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
Follow along online
Every day we are sharing artiprofiles, photo essays, interviews, and video features on the Festival Blog and our social media channels:
- Smithsonian Folklife on Facebook
- @smithsonianfolklife on Instagram
- @SmithsonianFolk on Twitter
Share you own moments with #2024Folklife!
Posted: 27 June 2024
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