During the days of 26th to 29th of May, I’ll be visiting the huge NorthWest FolkLife Festival in Seattle Washington, on the American West coast – one of the largest folk- and world music festivals in the world.
The festival is celebrating the cultural diversity of the Pacific NorthWest, and draws a huge crowd of up to 250.000 people, who experience and interact with about 5.000 artists from 5 neighboring states.
The 46th edition of NorthWest FolkLife Festival is happening in the center of Seattle, just under the famous observation tower, The Space Needle, from 1962, a land mark of the Pasific NorthWest. The people behind the festival writes on the festivals’ website that:
“The Northwest Folklife Festival is the place to learn, to dance, to play, to try something new, and to discover arts and cultures that inspire celebration of one another and our big neighborhood. From yodeling to beatboxing, square dancing to Bollywood, – the Northwest Folklife Festival celebrates the global traditions of local, independent artists.”
I love this festival, and I have performed at the festival with the Danish fiddler Harald Haugaard (Haugaard & Høirup), and with my old friend, the great American fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld (American Café Orchestra), who actually lives in Seattle.
But this year I am in a very special situation, I am going to perform at the festival with the awarded Danish fiddler Kristian Bugge. We have played as a duo before, but this is the first time that we play just the two of us outside Denmark, and I am very much looking forward to play our special blend of traditional and new Danish music as a duo, but also sometimes assisted by Ruthie Dornfeld, and by Kristians wife, the American Métis fiddler Jamie Fox.
Get more info at www.nwfolklife.org, and see a 10 minutes video about the festival here!