76th Annual National Folk Festival: North Carolina Folklife Area, One State, Many Worlds
nationalfolkfestival.com
The National Folk Festival is one of America’s largest, most prestigious, and longest-running celebrations of arts, culture, and heritage. Greensboro, North Carolina was chosen as the festival’s host location for 2015, 2016, and 2017. The producers of the festival recognized North Carolina’s unique cultural assets and strong community spirit, and wanted to celebrate the great diversity that makes North Carolina so special.
NC Folk helped produce One State, Many Worlds, which presented over 200 artists from across the state, and across the globe. Festival goers sampled Lao and Haitian Cuisine, learned Panjabi dance, listened to Eritrean bards, admired Montagnard weaving and learned the story of North Carolina’s first predominantly Latino state champion youth soccer club.
The North Carolina Arts Council partnered with NC Folk on the 2016 National Folk Festival, relying on NC Folk for curation, local arrangements and festival marketing texts. NC Folk exceeded curatorial expectations with creative planning, vigorous exploration of the festival’s themes, intense communication with performers and exhibitors, and excellent organizational skills.”
~ Sally Peterson, North Carolina Arts Council
Photographs by Zoe Van Buren, Anna Keneda and Evan Hatch