At 30, Folklife Festival spotlights its musical past, Korean culture

The Northwest Folklife Festival, opening today at Seattle Center and continuing through Monday, celebrates its 30th year with retrospective concerts, an archival exhibit and a special program on Korean American culture and art of the Northwest.

The festival made its debut in 1972. Then, as now, it allowed participants to share in public the music and art they created in their daily lives. The festival is run by Northwest Folklife, a non-profit organization that provides public performances and educational outreach programs throughout the year.

The festival has maintained its vision despite many challenges, including a debt crisis two years ago that nearly put an end to the annual celebration. Today, the festival enlists more than 1,000 volunteers and 5,000 volunteer entertainers who perform on eight stages. Annual attendance is about 220,000. And the budget has grown from $6,000 in 1972 to nearly $2.3 million.

The festival often has reached out to minority communities and their cultures.

This year's festival features a program titled "Han Madang: Korean American Communities of the Pacific Northwest," offering a rare glimpse of Korean culture. It includes master musicians from Seoul performing rare traditional folk songs of North and South Korea, the P'ungmul Parade (Sunday at 4 p.m. at Founders Court), an exhibit of traditional ritual objects and contemporary art, and performances of traditional Korean gospel, zither music and dance.

Han Madang, loosely translated, means "common ground." The program also features martial arts demonstrations, a traditional wedding ceremony and Korean games.

The festival opens today at 11 a.m. with a ceremony performed by Sodo sori artists. Sodo sori is a musical style that originated in North Korea, but has nearly disappeared in modern times. North Korean musicians who fled to South Korea during the Korean War and who are now in their 60s have kept thetradition alive.

A concert of Sodo sori and P'ansori artists (P'ansori is a style of vocal performance accompanied by drum) is tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Opera House. (P'ansori artist Yoojin Chung performs at 3:30 p.m.)

Also featured is a large exhibit of Korean American art and culture. The exhibit is divided into four sections. The first is "Snow Mountains of Korea" featuring the photography of Korean American artist Johsel Namkung, one of last working artists of the Seattle School of the 1940s that includes Mark Tobey, Morris Graves and Paul Horiuchi.

Other sections feature recent work by local artists, traditional objects and artifacts, works by young Korean American artists from the Shoreline Historical Museum's 1998-99 exhibit "Fresh Voices of the Community: Korean American Youth."

Korean films and cooking demonstrations are also a part of the "Han Madang" program.

A half-dozen concerts will commemorate the festival's 30th anniversary. The lineup includes festival founders and old-time musicians Phil and Vivian Williams, the Canote Brothers, Dawn Holladay and Bill Siems; a Northwest Celtic performance featuring Magical Strings, Paddy Graber, Stone Circle, the Irish Pipers' Club and the Gavaghan Irish Dancers; and a first-time fiddler contest.

Other performances include a fiddle contest, a veteran songwriter concert (featuring Jim Page, Reilly and Maloney, Baby Gramps, Janet Humphrey and others) and a performance of songs of the labor movement titled "From the Wobblies to Woody to WTO" Sunday from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at Mercer Arena.

The Northwest Folklife Film Fest 2001 includes the American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Traveling Film & Video Festival, the largest showcase of cultural documentaries in the United States.

Other highlights include: