The 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival opens in five weeks! The Festival runs from June 24–28 and July 1–5 from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, with special concerts scheduled most evenings. Want to kick off the event with us? Join us in the NMAI’s Rasmuson Theater on June 24 at 10:30 a.m. for the opening ceremony.

Join us on the National Mall between Third and Fourth streets, adjacent to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Read below for a preview of this year’s programs and more!

Perú: Pachamama

Perú: Pachamama highlights the diversity and vitality of Peruvian and Peruvian American communities. Musicians, dancers, craftspeople, cooks, and more will show how Peruvians are adapting and preserving their traditional culture. Two themes—bridging past and present and reuniting community—highlight the distinctive links between Peru’s diverse communities. At the Festival you can:

• Learn the Marinera, Peru’s national dance
• Help us paint a mural and learn about urban music and art
• Weave hand-dyed bracelets in traditional Cusco style

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Smithsonian Folkways Shares the Music of Peru

Ranging from the dance beats of cumbia amazónica to popular Andean huayno ballads, Peruvian music is lively and diverse. Listen to tracks from a few of the musicians who are traveling from Peru to perform at the Folklife Festival, plus songs from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings collection of the same dance traditions, themes, and regions featured in the Peru program.

Listen to the Festival playlist here
Find more Peruvian music from Smithsonian Folkways

Join Us: Volunteer!

The online form to volunteer at the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival is up, and we need your help to make the Festival a success. Volunteers are critical to the Festival and work closely with participants and staff. They assist stage managers, interact with visitors at the information booths, help with audiovisual documentation, provide general Festival support, and more. Spanish and Quechua speakers are encouraged to apply.

Apply here

Bring Your Own Blanket to the Evening Concerts

The music continues as the sun begins to set. Starting most nights at 7 p.m., the evening concert series at the Ralph Rinzler Concert Stage on the National Mall will feature Peruvian musicians, dancers, and special guest artists. Highlights include Eva Allyón (June 24), Los Wembler’s de Iquitos (June 27), Susana Baca (July 2), and Alex Acuña (July 3).

On June 28 at 5 p.m., the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert features Agustín Lira & Alma and Viento Callejero, representing the music of California’s Latino communities and a preview for the 2017 Folklife Festival program on California.

The Festival closes on the afternoon of July 5 with a special concert: Smithsonian Folkways Tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer, honoring the legacy of the famous civil rights activist and musician and celebrating the release of the album Songs My Mother Taught Me.

Bring a blanket or lawn chairs, and grab dinner from the Peruvian concessions stands!

View full schedule

Know Before You Go: Marketplace

The Festival Marketplace will be located in the Potomac Atrium on the ground floor of the National Museum of the American Indian, and it will be open for an extra week! From June 24 to July 12, stop by between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. to shop for Peruvian crafts made by Festival participants, specialty food items, and more.

• Brightly colored tin candleholders ($19) by Jang Araujo are created by cutting and painting tin using the techniques taught by his father.
• Eda Arroyo makes beautiful filigree leaf earrings ($179, left) out of sterling silver or gold to adorn the women who dance the Marinera, the national dance of Peru.
• Bring the sounds of Peru home with you with a handmade cajón, or box drum, in adult ($200) or junior size ($70).

Bring Your Appetite to the Festival!

Hungry? Curious about world-renowned Peruvian cuisine? At our concessions stands, you can feast on carapulcra (meat and potato stew), pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken), papa a la huancaína (potatoes in cream sauce), ensalada con palta y quinua (avocado and quinoa salad; pictured left), and many more Peruvian favorites. Wash it down with chicha morada (purple corn punch), limeade, or a refreshing Peruvian beer. Concessions open at 11 a.m. and close at 8:45 p.m. most days. Every evening after 4 p.m., enjoy a pisco sour or a Festival-inspired pisco cocktail.

View full menus and descriptions

Explore Andean History at the National Museum of the American Indian

The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire exhibition opens at the National Museum of the American Indian on June 26, exploring the foundations of the road in earlier Andean cultures, technologies that made building the road possible, the cosmology and political organization of the Inka world, and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and into the present day. The road continues to serve contemporary Andean communities across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru as a sacred space and symbol of cultural continuity. Explore the connections between the past and present by visiting the Festival and the exhibition!

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Donate today to support the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage!

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and co-sponsored by the National Park Service. Perú: Pachamama is co-produced by the Republic of Peru Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR). Additional support is provided by the Washington Dulles International Airport, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Telemundo, Brightest Young Things, and WAMU.

Images (top to bottom): 1) Mototaxis in Peru. Photo by Joshua Eli Cogan, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives. 2) Katya and Blanca Canto Lazo pose with their carved gourds at their home in Cochas Grande. Photo by Joshua Eli Cogan, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives. 3) Traditional Music of Peru, Vol. 6: The Ayacucho Region album cover. 4) Volunteer at the 2012 Folklife Festival. 5) Los Wembler’s de Iquitos. Photo by Joshua Eli Cogan, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives. 6) Earrings by Eda Arroyo. Photo by Josué Castilleja, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives. 7) Ensalada con palta y quinua. Photo by Zaki Ghul. 8) Inka figurine of a woman, AD 1470–1532. Coast of Peru. Gold-silver alloy. 9.6" x 2.5" x 2.8". National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution 5/4120. Photo by Ernest Amoroso.

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