Friday, May 23, 2014

Salt Lake's Living Tradition Festival

Linking up with Friday My Town Shootout
and Weekend Reflections

The Living Traditions Fest has been running now for 29 years. Craig, one of my folk dance friends, was instrumental in starting. It is always held at "City and County Building" block in downtown Salt Lake and is free.



This is the north side of the City and County Building, built in 1894 by the free masons. It was also the original camp site of the Mormon pioneers in 1847. They named it Washington Square after George Washington.


This is a view of the west side of the building which has an identical openings on each side of the building.



A Chinese dance troupe waiting on the side for their turn to perform.
 These ladies are also from the Chinese dance troupe and were sitting in the audience. They gracious smiled as I asked them if I could take a picture. I had missed their performance.


So graceful with ornate hair dressing,  I loved this Chinese dance.


I tried to get a close up of the hair design but got a little too much light in my shot.

Every hour there were at least four different performing groups, one on each side of the enormous City and County Building.

I was not able to be there for all the performances but some of them were Native American Music and Dance, Chili, Burmese, Bosnian, Lebanese, Basque, Turkish, Hopi, Mexican, Thia, Irish, Scandinavian, and the list goes on and on. It is a three day event.

One of the many art booths that interested me this year was Japanese origami of which the artist had made some tiny birds into earrings.  I am the earring queen - it is always the item that draws me in.

There must have been 30 different food booths from every country you can name.

I danced with a group of folk dancers for 30 years - we met once a week at the Student Union Building at the University of Utah. We danced a lot of balkan line dances, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian but also Polish, Russian, and French Canadian. 

21 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

sounds like a neat festival!

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

that is a beautiful building with great reflections. Looks like a wonderful festval

'Tsuki said...

What an interesting sharing ! I was very pleased to discover all of those in your compagny : lovely pictures and terrific reflections...

The Greenockian said...

Really like the last shot. Looks very interesting.

Nefertiti said...

Superbe !

Sobat Bonsai said...

interesting sharing

Paulette said...

Festivals are so much fun!

Ginny Hartzler said...

How wonderful that you are a dancer! First, I love your shots of the building! Are the pillars really pink and composed of six smaller pillars? And the beautiful delicate work on top of them. I love the dreamy picture of the elaborate hairdos, too!

Pauline said...

Don't know whether I like the building or the dancers the most. I admire the delicacy of the pink and white on the columns, so beautifully looked after. Also love the vibrant colours of the dancers' costumes.

Viera said...

that is really a beautiful building...as well as performance of dance...Lovely photos...

Anonymous said...

Sounds great. You had a nice time over there. The dress and hair dress are all fine!

Anne said...

Gorgeous building Ruth and the photos are so bright and colourful of the dancers.Sounds a great time.

Roan said...

The building is beautiful. Enjoyed your photos. Looks like fun.

Roan said...

The building is beautiful. Enjoyed your photos. Looks like fun.

Cranberry Morning said...

What wonderful photos, Ruth! And how cool that you danced with that group. Sounds like so much fun. BTW, about the London Eye, no, we did not have to stand in line more than probably 5 minutes. I got tickets for noon, thinking it would help that the sun wouldn't be in our eyes. And I bought them online while in London. It was a great experience! (P.S. Thanks for your comment on my London Eye post!)

Shirley said...

What a fun festival that must be to attend!

Scriptor Senex said...

Great photos - The one with the dance troupe in yellow is excellent.

orvokki said...

Lovely festival. And it was nice to hear your was dancing so long time.

You have to visit to my dancing blog
http://villitaskeleet.blogspot.fi/
There are over 100 different dances.

My vacation in Switzerland ended. I was there 2 weeks. It is a beautiful country. And now, here in Finland we have really a heat wave.

A big hug

EG CameraGirl said...

I'm sure I'd have enjoyed this festival!

Ida said...

What a cool event you attended. I loved the architectural details on that building and the shots of the dancers were just wonderful.

Unknown said...

Ruth this was a beautiful post.

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