The Folklife Festival flooded with Fourth of July revelers today following the parade on Constitution Avenue, packing the dance floors at both main performance stages.

Doris Tanui Chepchumba represents Rift Valley roots in contemporary music during the “Divas Night: Homage to Kenyan Women in Music”

Job Ouko Seda, a.k.a. Ayub Ogada, doing an impromptu performance on the nyatiti lute at The Watering Hole on July 3.

Early visitors to the Folklife Festival Thursday morning were greeted with a “Karibuni!” at the Karibuni Workshop Stage.

Today over thirty children’s summer camps came to the Folklife Festival, exposing hundreds of young people to the sights and sounds of China and Kenya.

After the close of the Folklife Festival’s first weekend, the chefs of the Flavors of Kenya stage have shown our visitors a wide variety of both traditional and modern Kenyan dishes.

With a heat index of 104⁰ in the capital today, Folklife Festival visitors might be more concerned with trying not to melt than with stopping to take in the arts and culture offered by participant artists.

See highlights from the Folklife Festival captured by our photography team.

During a private reception honoring the sponsors and participants for the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, two musicians from Kenya, Polycarp Awino

The Folklife Festival’s Kenyan and Chinese participants are as diverse as the crafts and music styles they represent.