Smithsonian Folklife Festival
The annual Smithsonian Folklilfe Festival opened on Wednesday of this week. This event brings together hundreds of artists, scientists and visitors on the National Mall. This year, the centerpiece of the festival is a 30-ft Bhutanese temple, or Ihakhang, that was built as a gift of friendship for United States. This temple features numerous carvings and depictions of a dragon, and is the largest structure of this type built for a festival on the National Mall. About 140 Bhutanese people will travel to Washington to showcase their culture. If you go to the festival, you will be able to see traditional Bhutanese dance, wrestling and sample traditional cuisine.
Also, this year's Festival will primarily feature displays from three widely different cultures: Texas, NASA and the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. In response to a question as to why NASA is featured, organizers responded that NASA offers many stories and contributes to the wider American culture. By the way, this year is the 50th Anniversary of NASA and around 200 employees of NASA, including astronauts, will be on hand to discuss their adventures. That alone will be prove to be some interesting conversastion.
In terms of Texas, the diverse cultures of Texas will be represented. There will be barbecue from Capitol Q, Tex Mex cuisine and also Texan Vietnamese cuisine as well. Who knew about Tex Vietnamese? Sounds good though. There is also a line up of Texas-born musicians that will be performing as well.
The festival runs everyday from 11am to 5:30 p.m. until July 6. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit: http://folklife.si.edu/festival/2008/