Folking the Fest

Seattle boasts an annual festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, the Northwest Folklife Festival. Coming from Humboldt County, where the folklife festival is one of the highlights of the community, we couldn't resist checking out what this event might be like in a big city.

 The weather was beautiful when we set out on our bikes to the transit center. Undaunted by a tire blowout, we lashed our bikes to a chaotic mess of other bicycles literally piled onto an artsy bicycle-rack-cum-sculpture at the Seattle Center.

The complex was teeming with people of all sorts - barefoot, shirtless, costumed, in various states of intoxication and bliss.

Good people-watching

One thing on the schedule that caught our eye was the Contra Dance. We'd had fun contra-dancing and square-dancing with friends before.  However, upon arrival the venue was a little overwhelming. We didn't dance, but we did enjoy the bird's eye view and the live band.

This ain't no Redwood Acres. Yikes!

Strung around a fountain at the Center was some fun guerrilla knitting.

These photos are for my girls at the In Stitches craft circle.

In my mind folk-life is inextricably linked with folk music. However, at this festival the booked musicians were crammed into small spaces or stages at the periphery.  Instead it was the buskers that drew the most attention.

Swing dancers and a brass band in front of the Space Needle

These guys drew quite a crowd.

It was fun and tiring day. We saw countless drunk teenagers, people smoking pot, ceramic and wooden crafts, painfully expensive (and cool) repurposed clothing, exhausted parents of inexhaustible toddlers, funnel cakes, lemonade and Mongolian barbecue. And at the end of it all, it's hard to beat rocking out to the musical stylings of the Balkan Marching Brass Band while drinking a cold beer under the Space Needle. Seriously.