Smithsonian Folklife Festival Features Northern Ireland
~ June 27 - July 1; July 4-8

The 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 takes place for two weeks every summer overlapping the Fourth of July holiday. It is an educational presentation that features community-based cultural exemplars. Free to the public, like other Smithsonian museums, each Festival typically draws more than one million visitors.

Among other areas, this year’s Festival will feature Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland program will bring to Washington the region's finest performers, artists, storytellers, craftspeople, cooks, and workers to help explain, demonstrate, and celebrate their culture. Through dynamic Festival performances, demonstrations, and educational activities, the program will highlight the rich history, living traditions, and distinctive customs of this beautiful region. Reflecting the complexity and creativity of Northern Ireland, the site will feature traditional industries, such as Belleek pottery and Bushmills Irish Whiskey, home-based crafts, such as lace- and bagpipe-making, and modern community expressions, such as mural painting.

A number of the U-SSA’s Ulster-Scots friends from Northern Ireland will be attending as musicians or crafts demonstrators. Please find time to gather with other U-SSA members and friends and enjoy the North of Ireland right here in the U.S.A.! For more information on the Folklife Festival, visit:

http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2007/index.html