Festival of Iowa Folklife: Cultural Crossroads (review)

A reunion of sorts, the Festival of Iowa Folklife, held in Waterloo, Iowa, included several artists, performers, and presenters from Iowa's two weeks on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the 1996 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. But this festival was built primarily on an NEA- and Fund for Folk Culture-funded program, Iowa's Traditions in Transition (ITT), led by Riki Saltzman, Coordinator of the Iowa Folklife Program at the Iowa Arts Council. ITT included fieldwork within several of Iowa'snewimmigrant andrefugee communities, and provided many of the new participants for this year's festival.

Festival coordinators collaborated with Minnesota's and Wisconsin's state arts agency folk arts programs, planning a tristate festival that will travel from state to state over the next several years. State Folk Arts Coordinators Phil Nusbaum (Minnesota) and Rick March (Wisconsin) brought participants from their respective states, and narrative stage topics drew on regional commonalities. In 2002 this festival will be held in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, at the Folklore Village.

Strong local partners combined with Saltzman's solid festival experience and capable assistance from Karen Heege, Iowa Folk-life Specialist, made for a very successful festival. The three-day event was sponsored locally by the Grout Museum District, Main Street Waterloo, and the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The Iowa Arts Council, home to the Iowa Folklife Program, was the fourth sponsoring partner. Waterloo's progressive mayor, Iowa state representatives, and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack were on hand for the opening ceremony, lending their support and announcing the passage of a state resolution supporting the festival and the recognition of the importance of Iowa's rich cultural diversity.

The festival's theme, "Cultural Crossroads," covered a wide range of topics and created an opportunity to showcase Iowa's ethnic diversity. A surprisingly progressive and open state, Iowa has been proactive in welcoming refugees to the state since the late 1970s when then Governor Ray opened the way for thousands of southeast Asians, displaced by the Vietnam War, to settle in Iowa. Festival participants featured newly arrived Bosnian and Sudanese refugees, first-, second, and third-generation Mexican Americans, first- and second-generation Southeast Asian Americans, and a few second-, third-, and fourth-generation European Americans.

The festival was ambitious-over 100 participants and nine stage areas. Stage areas were modeled after the Smithsonian's festival-narrative, performance, craft demonstration, foodways demonstration, and children's areas. Narrative sessions included such topics as "Rites of Passage," "Personal Adornment," "Living in Two Cultures," and a foodways session comparing African American and Sudanese/ Nuer food traditions.

Craft demonstrations, always a challenge to present in a festival setting, generally worked well. Presenters interviewed a featured artist every half hour on a small tree-shaded, amplified stage. A presenter in the area full-time might have facilitated better engagement between artists and the festival audience.

Two foodways areas made it possible to demonstrate a Bosnian lamb roast over an open fire outdoors as well as Nuer kop from the Sudan and other dishes requiring a full kitchen. The main foodways demonstration area, located indoors, was air-conditioned, which along with the relative quiet might have contributed to successfully keeping the audience for the entire 45-minute sessions.

Over 25,000 people attended the event. Attendees were rewarded with perfect weather. If they wanted to see all areas of the festival, they were required to walk several blocks. It may have been part of the trade-off organizers made to keep sound from bleeding into the other areas. Some festivalgoers commented that the distance between stage areas made it difficult to discover all aspects of the festival. Festival organizers hope to increase the amount of green space and ensure tents for each of the performance and audience areas for the 2004 festival. One couple said they were really glad to see...