Northwest Folklife
northwest folklife independent c art organization celebrates multigenerational art culture tradition global pacific northwest northwest folklife festival annual festival ethnic folk traditional art craft music take place memorial day weekend seattle washington seattle center brings together estimated visitor volunteer musician dancer performer admission without charge thanks community support donation attendee greeter entrance encourage visitor make donation special button yearly design exchanged donation northwest folklife founded seattle folklore society national park service national folk festival association national council traditional art city seattle part park service urban outreach program allow people northwest region including alaska publicly present make use entertainment first festival first held since grown become largest festival kind north america result covid pandemic folklife cancelled deferred year festival spotlight particular ethnic community folk tradition cultural focus program recent year cultural focus included maritime culture arabamerican life urban indian bulgarian culture passing cultural tradition generation generation recent cultural focus program include traditional root hip hop echo aztlan beyond youth rising festival stage large small set throughout seattle center ground feature mostly local act organized festival like volunteer support festival perform without compensation many venue notably armory nearby fisher pavilion set participatory dancing festival ground also include extensive space music jam drum circle many attendee across washington state oregon british columbia come northwest folklife annually play music friend festival also busker street performer come festival perform along seattle center walkway busker include musician juggler circus performer magician vary age style professionalism playing donation crowd festival organizer recently began asking busker donate earnings tip cd sale festival asked vendor performance featured stage expand term folk mean traditional folk music world performed along rockabilly balkan brass folk punk jug band music defies categorization dance performance include international folk dancing including morris dancing well swing blue festival also place people simply hang enjoy usually sunny memorial day weather giant fountain center seattle center serf water park since festival open people often come picnic sunbathe enjoy ground httpwwwnwfolklifeorg