The Next Fifty: A Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Seattle Center and Its Legacy

For 2012, Northwest folklife is joining in Seattle Center's six-month-long celebration of its fiftieth anniversary and making that celebration the Festival's Cultural Focus.  out organization is happy to participate in the festivities because the Seattle Center has been the Festival's home since our very first event, forty-one years ago.  It's been a close relationship: from the very beginning, Northwest Folklife and Seattle Center have shared the common goals of providing possibilities, bringing people together, and celebrating our region's vibrant culture. Many of the young people who came to the first Northwest Folklife Festival have returned over the years, first bringing their children and then their grandchildren. The annual trek to Seattle Center has become a family tradition. Who knew gift years could pass so quickly?  

Some of the groups that were at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair participated in the first Northwest Folklife Festival ten years later. And some of those groups(or their children or grandchildren) are still involved with celebrations at Seattle Center. Many of the ethnic festivals that Seattle Center hosts throughout the year got their start as a showcase at the Northwest Folklife Festival. 

With all of this shared history, part of our Cultural Focus programming includes retrospectives.  For example, Jack Straw Productions, a multidisciplinary audio arts center, started its life fifty years ago as KRAB Radio, and KRAB, along with Seattle Center, helped produce the some of the first Festivals. We celebrate Jack Straw's fifty years with a special showcase on Sunday afternoon on the Fisher Green that features some of the performers who used to appear on KRAB.  And did you know that there was Hootenanny at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair?  Jon Pfaff hosts a panel on Monday on the Narrative Stage that includes some or the folksingers who were affected by the Folk Revival of the 1960s.  

Not all of our programming looks back.  As part of the Cultural Focus:  The Next Fifty, we're following Seattle Center's lead and spotlighting contemporary and cutting-edge performers and genres that are sure to be around for, well, maybe the next fifty years.  As part of the All Ages | All Day event, a Hip-Hop competition will take place on Sunday in the Vera Project, featuring the Massive Monkeys and Robert Pastorok.  Visit the EMP Museum on both Saturday and Sunday to see some of the best all-ages programming anywhere:  Saturday marks the first-ever collaboration between VJ and chiptune artists who are using the fabulous EMP video screen for a their performances.  And Sunday is an All Ages | All Day extravaganza that features some of the very best 21-and-under bands in the region.  

Fifty years. Old ages, young ages, all ages. Many of our 2012 Festival visitors will be able to identify some of the big changes that have occurred to the grounds of Seattle Center in the past fifty years.  Just as many visitors will be aware of changes to the Northwest Folklife Festival. Those changes keep us vital and relevant.  We celebrate Seattle Center's last fifty years.  And we look forward to a continued relationship where we celebrate not only Seattle Center's next fifty years but also Northwest Folklife's next fifty as well.