Welcome to the Smithsonian Institution's third Festival of American Folklife. We are gratified that public response to this yearly presentation of our traditional culture has been so extensive and enthusiastic. I believe this response is indicative of a deep interest shared by all Americans in their separate and collective cultural heritage. In the final concert of last year's Festival, Alan Lomax commented that this was the Festival of the Common Man where people brought the art that they had made up out of their own experience. It is our hope that this Festival will continue in this vein, thus providing participants and visitors alike with increased understanding of our national character.

In 1968 the Smithsonian asked several outstanding scholars to contribute their definitions of folklore to our program book. These definitions emphasized that folklore was a highly diversified accumulation of lore, wisdom, and art which has been passed on from one generation to another, often without formal instruction.