Northwest Folklife Programs
Northwest Folklife Festival
Produced annually at Seattle Center, Memorial Day Weekend. As many as 250,000 people attend the four-day celebration of Northwest culture and heritage. The Festival is comprised of twenty-six indoor and outdoor stages and venues, about 1,000 performances and more than 6,000 participants/performers.
Folklife Presents
A concert series that allows Folklife to provide additional performance opportunities for Northwest artists. Northwest Folklife programming staff works to pair artists from diverse musical genres in new ways, expanding the definition of “folk” for its audiences.
Northwest Folklife Recordings
The longest running artistic program besides the Festival, includes compilations of live recordings from the Northwest Folklife Festival as well as presentations of material from the Folklife archive of over thirty-five years of Northwest music.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Our 40th Festival, the 2011 Northwest Folklife Festival, was a huge success. Our staff and volunteers work tirelessly throughout the year to prepare. This year's Festival included over 1,000 performances, panels, dances and workshops and attracted more than 240,000 participants.
One of our biggest needs right now is to fund the Northwest Folklife Audio Archive Project. With the sufficient equipment and resources, we will be able to make digital and make accessible forty years of recording collections while also preserving current Festival traditions for future generations.