The 49th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival

May 22 – 25, 2020 at Seattle Center – Postponed

For the People By the People

Committed to Access for All | Powered by Your Donations

Suggested Donation: $20 per person | $30 per family

To our dear Folklife community,

It is with a heavy heart that we announce our decision to postpone the 49th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival, initially set to take place Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-25 2020 at Seattle Center.

This decision was not made lightly, but ultimately, we feel this is the best decision for our greater community. We believe that postponement of this important tradition is necessary to protect the public, and particularly our most vulnerable populations.

Although we cannot celebrate together in one space at this time, we hope to see you continue to share your songs, dances, foods, and stories that keep us going. We encourage you to keep living out your folklife in your own homes.

YOU are Folklife—you are our family, and we will get through this together.

Thank you for your support. With endless gratitude,

The Northwest Folklife Team

About the Northwest Folklife Festival

Since 1972, the annual Northwest Folklife Festival has been a community-powered celebration of the music, arts, and heritage that make up the brilliant cultural tapestry of the greater Pacific Northwest. With over 5,000 performers on 20+ stages, 200 vendors, 500 volunteers, and upwards of 250,000 attendees, this remains one of the largest access-for-all festivals in the nation. The festival is more than a celebration of the diversity of the Pacific Northwest, it’s a chance to engage directly with the many communities that make up our region. This is the place to find your folk.





2020 Cultural Focus: Living Legacies As Northwest Folklife looks ahead to celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2021, it is the stories and traditions of the region that serve as the foundation and significance behind our organization and work. Join in preserving, supporting and cultivating our community’s cultural endowment through Cultural Focus: Living Legacies. We will be creating a Living Legacies Toolkit to document and capture family heritage and stories in tandem with our organization as we build a retrospective for our 50th anniversary and legacy for generations to come. 2020 Cultural Focus: Living Legacies will have four components: (1) Development of a Living Legacies Toolkit to share with communities to preserve, document and capture their stories; (2) Fieldwork and Documentation; (3) Archiving and Digitization, and; (4) Production of Podcasts, Digital and Anthological Booklet. Learn More

2019 Festival Highlights