The Folklife Festival 2025

THE WASHINGTON BALLET
AT CITY CENTER DC

The Washington Ballet at CityCenterDC

Under the Open Sky: The Washington Ballet Dances at CityCenterDC

A free fall performance that felt like a season teaser

On Friday, September 26, 2025, The Washington Ballet (TWB) brought pointe shoes and big-city sparkle to The Plaza at CityCenterDC for a free outdoor program—part of the company’s Dance For All series. The pop-up mixed classic pas de deux with fresh contemporary bites and even unveiled a new pas de deux by Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, making its D.C. debut especially for the plaza crowd. Seating was first-come, first-served; the vibe was festival-meets-high-art and 100% D.C. chic.

The Washington Ballet

Karen Weaving Circle

Weaving

The Karen Weaving Circle is a group of refugee weavers who came together to revive their textile tradition after moving to the United States. Members meet at the East Side Freedom Library in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to weave together and to hold classes for the next generation of Karen artisans.

Weaving
Students keeping their textile traditions alive.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon Preservation Trades Internship Program

Woodworking
Preservation Carpenters

George Washington’s Mount Vernon is committed to training the next generation of skilled artisans through its robust preservation trades internship program. Undergraduate students learn the philosophy and skills of preserving an historic eighteenth-century building through on-the-job experience, working side by side with master craftspeople, particularly in the areas of preservation carpentry, timber-frame construction, and heritage masonry.

American College of the Building Arts

Stonecarving
American College of the Building Arts (Charleston, SC)

The American College of the Building Arts is dedicated to preserving traditional building crafts through education and hands-on training. Students learn from master craftsmen in a variety of trades, including carpentry, masonry, and blacksmithing, ensuring that these vital skills are passed down to future generations.

Stonecarving
Joseph Kincannon, Master Stone Carver

Wood Carver
Stone Carvers

Sacramento Academic & Vocational Academy (SAVA)

SAVA car

The EV Lowrider Project was selected to showcase and represent Sacramento at the prestigious Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Featured in the Streetwise section of the festival, this project highlights the creativity and innovation of SAVA students. It reached hundreds of thousands of visitors and offered national recognition to students, educators, and sponsors alike.

SAVA car
SAVA car

Street Art and Graffiti

Street Art and Graffiti

The Festival’s Streetwise activities and presentations showcase the creativity with which young people, past and present, express their connections to the public spaces they inhabit. Whether living in urban, suburban, or rural communities, they claim these sites through a range of creative practices—mapping routes and communities and reshaping their surroundings in the process. In real life, and out on the street for all to see, they transform everyday spaces into hubs of display, interaction, and community. As artists and athletes, their activities often emerge in unofficial, irreverent, and unexpected ways.

Street Art and Graffiti
Street Art and Graffiti

Native Language Reclamation in the United States

Native Language Reclamation

At the Folklife Festival, the Native Language Reclamation in the United States program featured four groups representing different languages, regions, and ways of life and learning. Each had engaging cultural demonstrations around what connects them to their cultures and motivates them to learn their languages. Visitors of all ages got to try their hand at Myaamia ribbon work and lacrosse, learn Kodiak Alutiiq social dances, play Hawaiian ukulele tunes, learn from Mohawk basket makers, and more. Programming in the Gifts from the Land area highlighted their traditional foods and relationship to their environments.

Native Language Reclamation
Native Language Reclamation

The District Cup Returned to the National Mall for 8th Annual Charity Polo

Historic Hat Contest at The Virginia Gold Cup at Great Meadow

Blossoming Spectacle: 2025 National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade Steals the Show

The Preakness Stakes - A Jewel in the Triple Crown!

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Folklife Festival 2025
Folklife Festival 2025