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 Between 27 June and 8 July 2007, Kent was
represented at America's largest cultural event, The
Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
The festival took place on the National Mall in Washington DC,
between the National Monument and US Capitol buildings. The huge
grass area is taken over each year by the internationally-renowned
Smithsonian Institution to create their 'museum without walls' and
enables more than one million visitors each year to learn about and
understand different cultures.
Kent was invited to take part alongside the Commonwealth of
Virginia, further to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between
the regions in 2005. The Smithsonian Institution, which curates the
entire festival, was interested in developing a programme to
commemorate America's 400th anniversary.
A third of the festival was dedicated to 'The Roots of Virginia
Culture', in which Kent represented the parallels between Virginian
traditions and our own.
Benefits to Kent
This was a fantastic opportunity for Kent, even more so as it
was the first time England had ever been represented at the event.
It was also the first time that the Smithsonian Institution had
partnered a US state with anywhere else.
Kent County Council was delighted to be involved in the festival
and capitalised on the unparalleled profile afforded by the event.
The event enabled Kent to take advantage of the international stage
(and the $8 to $12 million dollars worth of press coverage) to
raise Kent's profile for the benefit of Kent tourism, Kent
businesses and Kent's inward investment. During previous festivals,
the Smithsonian website received 12 million visits and the
Smithsonian's Office of Public Affairs estimates there are 40
million media impressions.
Roots of Virginia Culture programme
The 'Roots of Virginia Culture' programme sat alongside two
others on the Mall, the Mekong Delta and Northern Ireland. Each
programme spanned the size of two to three football fields.
The programme was based on several themes demonstrating the
links across the Atlantic and those traditions important to both of
our cultures. These were:
Kent led a group of 40 local participants to represent these
themes, alongside 80 Virginians.
There was a number of marquees linked to the themes in which the
participants demonstrated their crafts and skills to visitors and
talked about their lives and livelihoods. As well as the marquees
there were food demonstration stages, narrative stages and
performance stages. These enabled discussions to take place in an
open forum as well as cookery demonstrations and other interactive
audience events to help visitors gain an understanding of Kent, our
culture and what we offer as a county. |