Overheard at the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival: “I’m a digital woman, I told you!”

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an experience of the senses, an invitation to see, taste, and smell.

Roughly one million visitors attend the Folklife Festival each year, engaging with tradition bearers from the United States and around the world.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of interning for the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and have been given the opportunity to film and experience the amazing cultural exhibition that is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Crowd favorites Ih Tsetsn often got audiences at Moonrise Pavilion hopping, stomping, and spinning with this upbeat love song, "The Handsome Horse."

The closing day of the 2014 Folklife Festival began with an all-participant photo on the steps of the National Museum of Natural History and ended with a blowout party of the hotel—but we won’t share photos of that!

Today’s pick from the Five Spice Kitchen is a vegetarian dish that blends fresh sweet and sour flavors. In some Chinese cities, summers are hot and humid, leaving people with little to no appetite.

Martial arts students from the Beijing Sports University, Chai Yunlong and Tian Mengyi, demonstrated tai chi and a fu chen fight routine during a 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival evening concert.

See highlights from the Folklife Festival captured by our photography team. Join us on the National Mall to see the action for yourself, and add your own photos to our Festival Flickr group!

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace is hosting an invite-only, after-hours event on Miao embroidery, featuring China: Tradition and the Art of Living