2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Pictures

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an annual summer event in Washington, DC celebrating cultural traditions around the world. The festival includes demonstrations, live music and dance performances, storytelling, crafts, hands-on activities and more. The 2009 themes are Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture, The Americas: A Musical World and Wales Smithsonian Cymra. The following pictures will give you a glimpse of the event.

The Americas: A Musical World features outstanding artists from the United States and Latin America representing the rich diversity of musical styles in the United States and throughout the Americas, including Puerto Rican bomba, plena, and jíbaro music, Mexican son music from various regions, mariachi music, Colombian vallenato, joropo, and currulao, Dominican merengue típico, bachata, and salve, Chilean cueca, tonada, and nueva canción, Venezuelan música llanera, Paraguayan polca, Guatemalan marimba, and Salvadoran chanchona music.