Welcome to the 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival! This year we feature four programs--Oman: Desert, Oasis, and Sea; Forest Service, Culture, and Community; Food Culture USA; and Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture. Now in its 39th year, the Festival once again presents a sample of the diverse cultural heritage of America and the world to large public audiences in an educational, respectful, and profoundly democratic way on the National Mall of the United States. True to form, the Festival illustrates the living, vital aspect of cultural heritage and provides a forum for discussion on matters of contemporary concern.

For the first time, the Festival features an Arab nation, Oman. Oman is at the edge of the Arabian Peninsula, both geographically and historically situated between East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Trade routes, frankincense, silverwork, Islam, a strategic location, and oil have connected it to the cultures of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean region, and beyond.