Texas Folklife Festival

I attended the Texas Folklife Festival this past weekend in San Antonio. The event used to be held the first weekend in August, but some years ago it was moved to June because of the August heat. It may get moved again - to January - because of the June heat.

History:

     The event is held on the grounds of the Texas Institute of Texan Cultures. The Institute is adjacent to the "Tower of the Americas," in case you are in town looking for an interesting and cool place to learn about Texas history.       The Institute is part of/ associated with University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The Texas Folklife Festival is an offshoot of the folklife festival held in D.C.

The purpose is to bring to light the many cultures that are in Texas and are a part of Texas history. There is plenty of food to taste - fallafel, fajitas, rabbit, chow mein, blot wurst. To wash it all down you will find an assortment of drinks as well. The many peoples are also highlighted by music and dance performances at one of 7 stages. Here are some of the pixs.

The festival is run almost entirely by volunteers and some of them come in costumes.

Around the grounds there are crafters making baskets, carving, cooking, etc. There are many kid-focused activities as well.

I think these women were baking beans and handing out samples to onlookers

The following three pictures came from the wine tent.

The "Texas Hold'em" bottle was in a glass display. It was a red Grand Reserve - whatever that means.

 The American Indians in Texas performed and then introduced as Comanche, Apache, and Cherokee. The individuals names were all Hispanic/ Mexican

This was a group of Filipino performers about to take the stage.

The performances I saw were an odd combination. First there was the Mexican Folkloric dancers. Although they were young and still needed time to get all those steps down, they were colorful. Then there was the German folk dancers. These were quite a contrast to the foot stomping Mexican dancers. The Germans were followed by the American Indian Dancers, again an odd contrast to the Germans.

The group leader stated that the men have two kinds of hats - round tops and square tops. He said that the Catholics wore the square tops and the Protestant the round tops. True?

This was the only clear picture of the American Indian dancers. My camera does not do so well with movement and these folks were kind of hyper.

Once I figure out how to post a video, I will add the three 15 second videos from the festival.

Joe