posted 05/26/09 12:29 AM | updated 06/10/09 06:22 PM

Northwest Folklife: Past, Present, and Future

PostGlobe

A pictorial essay by Clark Humphrey: Every year, about a quarter million people start their Seattle summer with the Northwest Folklife Festival. Some come for the dancing and the people-watching and the fast-food eating. Some come to more seriously partake of the traditional music, dance, crafts, and merchandise.

Folklife is in its 38th year. It held a "retro" vibe from its start. Can this event, which eternally looks toward various yesterdays, remain vital in the years to come?

At last year's Northwest Folklife Festival, two bystanders were injured when two young men got into an argument and a gun belonging to one of the men went off, possibly accidentally. That incident led to this big sign at every entrance this year. No, cruise-ship tourists, Seattle's no pistol-crazy wild west cowtown, at least not anymore. And Folklife never was.

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which folklife is this?
Your contributing writer/photographer appears to have attended a different Folklife Festival than the one I was at for the past three days. All I see here is trivia, an outsider viewpoint at that. Much as I hope for the PostGlobe to succeed, when this coverage is contrasted with our old friends over at the online P-I, there you'll see the bigger picture of the event, with 18 photos that actually look like Folklife 2009. I hope the PostGlobe doesn't become an excuse for poor journalism just because some contributors will be 'volunteer.'
Comment by forest May 26, 2009	( 0 votes) ( report abuse ) ( reply )