Folklife Festival 2010: Revel Without a Cause

The start of the month of May means the Northwest Folklife Festival is just around the corner. This year, Folklife runs from Friday, May 28th thru Monday, May 31st at Seattle Center. The Northwest Folklife Festival is an annual festival of ethnic, folk, and traditional art, crafts, and music that takes place over the Memorial Day weekend in Seattle. It brings together an estimated 250,000 visitors, 1,800 volunteers, and more than 6,000 musicians, dancers, and other performers. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged.

The Folklife Performers
The music that Folklife musicians play span an incredible selection of genres. But folk music is everywhere, and you’ll find plenty of musicians playing fiddles, banjos, washtub basses, mandolins, and accordions:

Here’s a video from the group, Madame Flodd, from the 2007 Folklife Festival:

You’ll find interesting groupings of instruments, such as this saxophone trio:

You’ll also find specialty musicians, such as this one playing a musical saw with a violin bow (not sure why he was wearing a fake rabbit nose and teeth):

There’s also plenty of great food to eat, especially ethnic food from around the world:

And finally, there are people with diverse interests at Folklife, such as this woman who was passing out meeting invitations to hear testimonials from people who had re-grown their teeth. The meeting, interestingly, was being held at a neighborhood library.