Festivals

There are many, many festivals that go on in downtown DC over the summer months. It makes it a pain to drive through downtown, especially the Mall and Penn Ave, but the bright side to all of the traffic is the festivals. Today the Smithsonian Institution's annual Folklife Festival kicks off. If you haven't been, definately go. This year the three groups/nations that the festival focuses on is Appalachia, Mali and Scotland. I think there will be very good food to have all around. Not to mention, wandering around the Mall listening to the Irish brogue.....I'm not going to finish that thought, Fuat might read this. It's open from today till Sunday, and the second week-end is from July 2-6. All the booths are open during the day where there is much food and shopping fun to be had, then at night there are performances. There will also be some demonstrations. Something for everyone.

Why do I like the Folklife Festival so much? I used to volunteer for them. I haven't been able to in the past two years, becuase of work, but it was always a great time. The last year that I did it, the three focuses were Architechture, New York City and Bermuda. I worked for the Bermuda section. The day was horrendously hot, a normal DC summer, but then it began to rain in the afternoon. The Festival carried on, but then a thunderstorm rolled in. We're on the Mall, with trees, and a lot of metal and electrical wiring around us. The officials started to tell everyone to get the heck out of the booth areas. So, we helped the exhibitors to move their items into a large shipping container. My friend and I were soaked to the bone, standing in a large metal shipping container packing it, and then we realized that probably wasn't the safest place to be, with the lightning and all. Even with all the wet misery, I'll always remember that day fondly.