Taking Part in the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Mekong River : Connecting Cultures

In the world full of cultural diversity, recognising and respecting other peoples’ way of life is crucial for peaceful coexistence. Building bridges between different cultures is a primary aim of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which is an annual festival that takes place in The National Mall, Washington D.C., every summer. Each year, living folk cultures from regions of the United States and other parts of the world are demonstrated and communicated to the American public. The Festival is intended to be a learning process during which visitors can have first-hand experience of a culture represented by its culture bearers who communicated through English-speaking presenters.
In 2007 one theme of the Festival is “Mekong River: Connecting Culture” which will tell stories of folk cultures of many groups of people who live in the Mekong subregion. The PMCSAC has been invited to take part in hosting the Festival together with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Yunnan Province of China. Each country will be represented by skilled craftsmen and folk artists and musicians who sill take part in craft demonstration and performances in Washington D.C. for about two weeks from June 27 to July 8 , 2007.
The preparation for the Festival has been under way since 2004 and included a series of seminars, workshops, training sessions and research. The activities do not only gear towards the Festival, but are designed to build capacity for researchers, cultural workers, cultural administrators, in documenting and presenting living cultural heritage. They have also created friendship and paved way for further collaboration among Mekong countries.
The activities were supported by generous funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. The participation of Thai delegation is funded by the Royal Thai government through the support of the Ministry of culture.
One June 25, 2007 a group of 60 participants – craftspeople, musicians, performers, from the North and Northeast of Thailand, and presenters will depart for Washington DC., taking with them the pride of our living cultural traditions and the life stories of their cultural bearers to present to people from other parts of the world.