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Now streaming:

The Quilt Sessions

Folklife Film Forum

Fountain Lawn

  • 2:00 - 4:00pm - Alchemy Union/Filthy Fingers United
  • 4:30-5:15 - Aurora Ave.
  • 7:00-8:00pm - Friday night groovy Get Down with Marmalade
  • 8:10-9:00 - Friday Night Groovy Get Down with Zphrisms

The Quilt Sessions

  • 2:00pm - Ned and Wendy the Band
  • 4:00pm - The Phantom Pines
  • 6:00pm - FM Stereochild, Live

Folklife Listening Party and Film Forum

  • 1:00pm - Public Archive selections: 1970s
  • 3:00pm - Public Archive selections: 1980s
  • 5:00pm - Public Archive selections:1990s
  • 8:00pm - Public Archive selections: 2000s

Fountain Lawn

  • 1:30pm - The Kid Ave
  • 2:50pm - Balcony Bridge
  • 3:30pm - Strum
  • 4:30pm - Sounds of Africa with Zambuko Marimba Ensemble
  • 5:15pm - Sounds of Africa with ShiDaa Music
  • 6:00pm - Sounds of Africa with Anokye Agofomma
  • 7:00pm - Queer Rock Showcase Sponsored by Seattle Gay News with Gender Envy
  • 7:45pm - Queer Rock Showcase Sponsored by Seattle Gay News with Cat People
  • 8:30pm - Queer Rock Showcase Sponsored by Seaettle Gay News with K Van Petten

The Quilt Sessions

  • 12:00pm - Waltzerr
  • 2:00pm - Teddy Cosmo
  • 4:00pm - Natalie Hanes
  • 6:00pm - Max Stephens, Live

Folklife Listening Party and Film Forum

  • 1:00pm - Public Archive selections: Klezmer music
  • 3:00pm - Public Archive selections: Choral music
  • 5:00pm - Public Archive selections: Jazz, Country, and Blues
  • 8:00pm - Public Archive selections: Stringbands & Bluegrass

Fountain Lawn

  • 1:30pm - Ke'ala 'O Kamailelauli'ili'i
  • 2:45pm - Sunshine from Polynesia
  • 4:30pm - Balkan Misfits with Taraful Pajura
  • 5:15pm - Balkan Misfits with Balkanarama
  • 6:00pm - Balkan Misfits with Kef
  • 7:00pm - Reggae Showcase with MISTA CHATMAN/RIDDIM BOX AND A MIC
  • 7:45pm - Reggae Showcase with Fire Marshall Ventura
  • 8:30pm - Reggae Showcase with Adrian Xavier

The Quilt Sessions

  • 12:00pm - Belle Plaine
  • 2:00pm - Beatbox Panda
  • 4:00pm - Dusty the Kid

Folklife Listening Party and Film Forum

  • 1:00pm - Public Archive selections: Music from Japan
  • 3:00pm - Public Archive selections: Music from Zimbabwe
  • 5:00pm - Public Archive selections: Singer - Songwriters
  • 8:00pm - Public Archive selections: Spoken Word

Fountain Lawn

  • 1:25pm - Kim & Brian
  • 2:30pm - Xolie Morra & The Strange Kind
  • 3:15pm - Captain Bloody Wendy
  • 4:15pm - Path with Art Tango Orchestra
  • 5:30pm - KNKX Showcase with Reggie Garrett & the SnakeOil Peddlers
  • 6:40pm - KNKX Showcase with Paula Bogga Band

The Quilt Sessions

  • 12:00pm - Baby Jam
  • 4:00pm - Julian Loida
  • 6:00pm - Erika Lundahl, Live

Folklife Listening Party and Film Forum

  • 12:00pm - Jamcation
  • 2:00pm - Vanishing Seattle
  • 4:00pm - Facing the Storm

May 23-26, 2025

We're excited to announce this year's 2025 Cultural Focus, IKIGAI! 

Pronounced: Ee-kee-guy

The concept of Ikigai marks the next phase in our cultural focus exploration that began by looking inward at our personal growth. Over the past three years, these themes-- Metamorphosis, Lagom, and Meraki, which explore change, balance, and passion--helped us understand our role in a fast-changing world, often overwhelmed with distractions and demands.

Derived from the Japanese words "Iki" (life) and "Gai" (worth living), Ikigai invites us to embrace an intuitive journey, one that encourages us to navigate life’s complexities and, eventually, challenging us to find and embrace our true purpose, considering both intimate and social dimensions of life. It's about showing up authentically, trusting the process, and allowing your purpose to come into view, often when you least expect it.

What is your Ikigai?

Festival Hours:

Friday, May 23rd: 4pm - 11pm

Saturday, May 24th: 11am - 11pm

Sunday, May 25th: 11am - 10pm

Monday, May 26th: 11am - 9pm 

To read about the festival, see the schedule, and more, view our digital program guide: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/...

Threads of the People

Threads of the People is our take on a fashion show, featuring a mix of runway shows, workshops and demos, vendor booths, displays and material swaps. This new addition to the festival will explore fashion as a folk art, the ways in which fashion and culture are interwoven, and seek to bring fashion back to its roots - when our clothing was created in homes, by hand, and from materials found in our natural environment.
Read More or Apply!

Kuleana Corridor

NW Folklife’s exploration of the Folk vocation, bringing the people, communities, organizations, and cooperatives who are actively engaging in techniques that promote bio- diversity, support sustainable & healthy food production, and give strength to the cause of food justice, security, and sovereignty.
Read more or Apply!

The Makers Space

The Maker’s Space is designed to showcase and give hands-on demonstrations of the wide world of craft. We want to encourage and instill a sense of wonder and imagination in our own creative imaginings and curiosities.
Read more or Apply!

Community Quilt

Northwest Folklife will be celebrating the folk art of quilting at the 2025 Northwest Folklife Festival. We will be soliciting 15” quilt blocks from the community to be displayed at the 2025 Northwest Folklife festival. After the festival, the blocks will be sewn into a community quilt. 

Learn More

Poster Artists

Toka Valu

Toka Valu is an indigenous Pacific Islander Artist and Illustrator with more than five years of Public Arts experience, and over twenty years of illustration & visual arts work. His artistic influences are culturally rooted and informed by his cultural upbringing in Tonga and cultivated by the Duwamish lands that he now calls home in the Pacific NW.

Toka’s practice integrates both his Tongan cultural upbringing and his transformative experience in the Pacific Northwest to establish a unique and bold artistry. As a multifaceted creative, his work aims to illuminate the unseen connections in our relationships and the resulting dynamics of these ties. Using a variety of applications, Toka’s work is contemporary in its interpretation and grounded in traditional Pasifika and Tongan aesthetic.

https://www.tokavalu.com/

King Khazm

King Khazm is an emcee, visual artist, producer and community organizer who has become a prominent figure in the Hip-Hop community within Seattle and around the world. His work to engage and empower communities is demonstrated through over 25 years of music, art and community service.

Khazm serves as a board member of paralysis support organization The Here & Now Project, board member of King County arts funding agency 4Culture, manager of the historic venue Washington Hall and executive director of Hip Hop community organization 206 Zulu.

https://kingkhazm.com/