Smithsonian Folklife Festival – Catalonia: Tradition and Creativity from the Mediterranean

Visitors to the 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival can see how Catalan people channel their creativity to ensure the vitality of their local cultures and livelihoods.

dThe 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 Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The Festival generally includes daily and evening programs of music, song, dance, celebratory performance, crafts and cooking demonstrations, storytelling, illustrations of workers’ culture, and narrative sessions for discussing cultural issues.

The 2018 edition of this Festival, initiated in 1967, will celebrate the rich cultural expressions of Catalonia, and visitors will be able to help build a human tower, hear contemporary music rooted in tradition, and experience the communal vida a la plaça –life in the plaza.

Catalonia is a distinctive society in northeastern Spain, bound by the Pyrenees to the north and the Ebro River Delta to the south. Long known as a “welcoming country” (país d’acollida), Catalonia has been defined by its location and thousand-year history of social and cultural mixing. Evidence of this history appears in local communities stretching across the region: the Roman settlement of Barcino that ultimately grew into Barcelona, Romanesque churches and cathedrals dedicated to local saints, castles that separated Christian kingdoms and the Muslim Caliphate of Al-Andalus during the Middle Ages, modernist masterpieces by Antoni Gaudí and his protégés, and contemporary architectural monuments that reference Catalonia’s role as an international hub for technology and innovation.

In addition to Catalonia, the Festival will pay homage to Armenian culture, and will also include special programs dedicated to the Sisterfire Concert Festivals, African Fashion, and migrations.

View the full schedule of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.