The children's area was created to celebrate children's folklife--those things that children teach each other and pass from one generation to the next through friends and siblings. Some of these traditions are demonstrably hundreds of years old. Some are fairly recent and are spreading voraciously.

To demonstrate children's folklore, young participants have been selected in cooperation with schools, scout troops and camps from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Festival visitors are invited to join participants in presentations in the crafts tent, game ring, hill and sand area and around the stage.

Children's folklore includes aspects of material culture: not only items which are made like slingshots, dolls and paper airplanes, but also items which are collected, traded, bought or won like comics, trading cards, toys, rocks, stamps and coins and other precious possessions like records, transistor radios, bicycles, jump-ropes, balls and favorite clothes.