2013 WRAP REPORTArtwork by Drew Christie.

THE 42nd ANNUAL NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL

MAY 24-27, 2013

A CELEBRATION OF THE NORTHWESTThe 2013 Northwest Folklife Festival brought together over 5,000 performers across 22 stages, with the aid of more than 800 volunteers. This year the Festival drew an estimated crowd of 230,000 people to Seattle Center over four days. The crowds enjoyed surprising-ly fair weather for most of the event, and spirits were high despite periods of rain on the final day.

But, as the lead singer from The Sojourners noted, “Rain crowds are the best audience, because you know they really want to be here!”

Festival highlights included a fascinating and moving discussion with Washington State “Rosies,” women who went to work in the shipyards during WWII. The talk was part of the Cultural Focus “Washing-ton Works.” Energetic crowds were in full force for a Saturday night performance by soul band Eldridge Gravy, as well as Monday evening’s performance by reggae legend Clinton Fearon and his Boogie Brown Band. Rain was even embraced during the stirring set by pedal-steel band The Slide Brothers on Mon-day afternoon. And the Exhibition Hall was stand-ing-room-only during Friday night’s Bollywood Showcase, a good sign that next year’s Cultural Focus on India will be hugely popu-lar and engaging.

The 2013 Festival reaffirmed Northwest Folklife as essential to the cultural fabric of the Northwest by uniting a diverse group of people with the common interest in music, dance, art, and the unique char-acter of the region.

WASHINGTON WORKS CULTURAL FOCUS

IN 2013, NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE CELEBRATED WORK.

The Cultural Focus, or theme, of the 42nd annual Festival, was “Washington Works,” a multimedia program that featured panel discussions, special presentations, demonstrations, film screenings, story-telling, sing-a-longs and more, all on the topic of working. The program is part of a project that explores labor culture and history in the Northwest, a join effort between Northwest Folklife and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Festivalgoers had the opportunity to learn more about other people’s jobs through panels and presenta-tions on the Narrative Stage at SIFF Cinema (sponsored by KUOW 94.9FM), at art exhibits in the Lopez Room, during demonstrations and storytelling sessions in the Olympic Room, and in the discussions and exchanges that took place throughout the weekend.

Highlights of the schedule included a presentation by Seattle Public Librarians that featured their favor-ite fiction and nonfiction works about labor; a bed-making contest with members of Unite Here! Local 8 (representing the hospitality industry), showing us the way it’s done in hotels; a panel made up of some of Washington’s “Rosie the Riveters,” women who who stepped up to work traditionally male jobs such as shipbuilding during WWII; stories told by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77’s linemen about working in winter storms to get the electricity back on; an exhibit of the work of New Deal printmaker Richard V. Correll on display in the Lopez Room all weekend; and even stories

from two local ministers and a rabbi about the “work” of being a clergyman or woman.

Northwest Folklife worked with the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, the Harry Bridges Center for La-bor Studies at the University of Washington, and other labor history groups to pres-ent a variety of programs as part of “Washington Works.”

Washington “Rosies” (left); Labor exhibit in the Lopez Room (right). Photos by Dan Thornton.

WASHINGTON WORKS

CULTURAL FOCUSSTRENGTH IN NUMBERS

IMPORTANT STATS & FIGURES

235,000 Attendees 1116 Individual Friends of Folklife Donors

5,100 Performers 826 Scheduled Performances

22 Stages 65 Genres of Music

740 Volunteers 4,536 Volunteer Hours

20 Media Sponsors $100,585 Media Sponsorship Value

$0 Admission Fee

Dancers in the Roadhouse. Photo by Dan Thornton.

SOCIAL METRICS

WEB REACH FOR May 24-27, 2013

Facebook Reach: 171,000Total Facebook Fans: 15,200

Twitter Reach: 101,000Twitter Followers: 1,764

Festival Website Visits: 106,575

Photo by Dan Thornton.

MEDIA COVERAGE

INTEREST FROM THE PRESS

Radio The Festival was pleased to partner again with several local radio stations, reaching a wide demo-graphic. All sponsor stations ran promotional spots before the event, including KUOW, KBCS, and—newly returning this year--KSER. NPR music affiliate KEXP devoted a special edition of the show “The Roadhouse” to the Festival Preview Party on April 25, with live performances by bands sched-uled as part of our Indie Roots programming. Editorial coverage included an interview with pro-grammer Michelle Demers-Shaevitz on the show “Get Active with Pat Pauley” that airs on Alternative Talk 1150 KKNW, and a live interview about the Cultural Focus, Washington Works, with Deputy Director Deborah Fant, followed by an in-studio musical performance, on NPR affiliate KUOW’s pop-ular “Weekday” program. Programmers of the Washington Works series also appeared live on KBCS during the Music + Ideas show.

Print & Online Northwest Folklife continued its partnership with The Seattle Times for both the production of the souvenir Festival guide and promotional support. The Times printed 285,000 copies of the guide, with 185,000 included as an insert in regional editions. The Times also wrote several feature-length stories and blog posts about the Festival and posted highlights and photo galleries online for each day of the event. Other notable print coverage included extensive previews from No Depression, Parent-Map, The Everett Herald, The International Examiner, The SunBreak, and the alt-weeklies The Stranger and Seattle Weekly. Previews and calendar items were featured in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Alaska Airlines Maga-zine, iBuki Magazine, City Arts Magazine, and The Olympian.

Online coverage included write-ups on the sites SeattleTrekker.com, About.com, KEXP.com, West Seattle Blog, Fresh Picked Seattle, and Downtown Seattle.

This year we were pleased to have stories and profiles on niche and local sites that had not featured the Festival in recent years, including Jew-Ish.com, The News Tribune, Kingston Community News, Seattle Office of Film & Music, and Seattle Dances.

Special follow-ups reflecting on the Festival events ran in the Seattle Times, Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattlepi.com, and at The Economist online. A special ad ran in the Seattle Times after the Festival, thanking the community for their support and involvement.

Television Northwest Folklife was pleased to have KCTS 9 as our primary television sponsor for the second year. KCTS 9, a local PBS affiliate, ran promotional spots about the Festival in the weeks leading up to the event. The station also spent an entire day on grounds collecting footage for a feature piece that will run this summer on the arts & culture program PIE. Other television sponsors included Uni-vision-KUNS, and the Seattle Channel returned as a broadcast sponsor, airing segments from our Northwest Stories series to promote the Festival.

FROM THE PRESS MEDIA REACTION

Voted one of the 10 best cultural festivals in May in the world by 10best.com, a division of USA Today Travel

Northwest Folklife continually offers up one of the most diverse festival experiences around. Where else can you take in Balkan brass, Bollywood dance, indie rock, and street busker tunes in a matter of mere minutes?--Seattle Metropolitan

Olympia’s alternative-rock label, K Records — celebrated Monday at The VERA Project — fits in as nicely as bagpipers, indie-folksters and high-school jazzers.

--Seattle Times

One of the best things about Folklife is the chance to discover emerging artists alongside established ones in an engaging and nurturing format you won’t find anywhere else. --Seattle Weekly

Walking across the grounds was like spinning the radio dial, as a marimba duo plinked and plonked out Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” jazz saxophones sliced through air, drum circles percolated from under the trees and children screamed as they ran in and out of the Seattle Center fountain spray.--Seattle Times

The Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle’s free four-day party, is a celebration of cultures where people can listen to music, try out dances

and hear stories from all around the world. --Everett Herald

Swing dancers in the Armory. Photo by Dan Thornton.

OUR SPONSORS

CASH, IN-KIND & MEDIA SPONSORs The Northwest Folklife Festival is presented in partnership with Seattle Center.

CASH BathfitterBECUBen & JerrysBlue MoonBridge Portcar2goClowns UnlimitedComcastDoleDeschutesEventsfyFrankfurterFungi Perfecti GEICO Pacific Continental Bank ProletariatRenewal by AndersenThe New York TimesTrumer Pils

IN-KIND Brew Dr. KombuchaCaffe LadroCentral Co OpChoice Organic TeaCourtyard MarriottCravedogDave’s Killer BreadEinstein BagelsEvergreen Hearing & Speech ClinicExecutive Hotel Pacific SeattleField RoastFresh Breeze Organic DairyGibson GuitarGuitar CenterHonest TeaHosteling International Mediterranean InnMetropolitan MarketMighty-O DonutsMorgan SoundMt. Townsend CreameryOdwallaPanera BreadPartners CrackersPepsiPODSPopchipsPTT CommunicationsPyramid StagingQFCRocky Mountain Chocolate FactorySafewaySeattle FudgeSeattle Parks & RecreationTaco Del Mar The Bread Garden The Essential Baking Company Trader Joe’sUrban Press

MEDIA

TelevisionKCTS 9Seattle ChannelUnivision-KUNS

RadioKCTS 94.9FMKEXP 90.3FMKBCS 91.3FMKSER 90.7FMHollow Earth Radio

PrintThe Seattle TimesSeattle WeeklyThe Celtic ConnectionEpoch TimesNorthwest Asian Weekly

WebMother JonesSeattlepi.comNo DepressionParentMapThe SunBreakSeattle PipelineWashington Blues SocietyVictory Music

Photo by Ryan Davis.

Thank You for a Wonderful Festival!

NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE | 305 HARRISON | SEATTLE, WA 98109 | NWFOLKLIFE.ORG

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Fame Riot. Photo by Dan Thornton.