Slideshow: Northwest Folklife Festival 2012
All photos by Alexandra Notman.
The Portland-based Bridgetown Morris Men perform the centuries-old English Morris folk dance, believed to have Moorish origins, outside McCaw Hall.
Electric Children blasts the crowd with a chiptune set at the EMP Sky Church Saturday afternoon. Chiptunes, perhaps the most modern folk genre at the festival, are made with video game sounds chips and juxtaposed here with big-screen video imagery.
Profane Sass busked all day near the Fisher Pavilion even though the band’s lead singer and mandolin player had just arrived at Folklife after a 72-hour train ride from North Carolina.
if lines were any indication, deep-fried PB and Js were the most popular fried food trend of the festival.
Seattle visual artist Mandy Greer installed her 250-foot crocheted Mater Matrix Mother and Medium to honor the city’s urban waterways.
Hundreds of couples danced to the traditional tango music of Bainbridge Island quartet Bluefish Tango at the Center House Court Stage.
Eugenenians Naima Muntal and Ila Kreigh of Bad Mitten Orchestre belt out a unique blend of Americana and Gypsy music.
One of the most popular busking acts below the Space Needle, Quicha Mashis performed traditional music from northern Ecuador within the Andes mountains.
Hundreds of festival-goers swung to the sounds of Snohomish County’s Hettle Street Blues at Warren’s Roadhouse.
Portland country band Denver brought some twang to the Indie Roots stage.
Saturday evening wound down at the International Fountain, originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair. Along with the fountain, the Space Needle celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
