Promotes Texas as Prime Travel Destination in Festival’s Opening Ceremony
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Gov. Rick Perry today kicked-off the 42nd annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which showcases Texas as a travel destination. The Festival highlights the Lone Star State’s unique music, food and wine traditions.
“Perhaps more than any other state, Texas has a certain mystique, a sense of identity that people recognize and admire all over the world,” said Gov. Perry. “Texas is the land of Davy Crockett and Sam Houston, Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, Michael Dell and Ross Perot. The list of Texans who have dreamed big dreams and done great things is growing as we speak.”
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is an international exposition of living cultural heritage annually produced by the Smithsonian Institution at the National Mall of the United States. This year’s festival runs June 25-29 and July 2-6. The Texas exhibition, titled Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food and Wine, will showcase more than 100 Texans who are among the best of the state’s musicians, cooks and winemakers.
Throughout the festival, musicians will perform unique Texas sounds like swing, conjunto, Texas blues, country and western, gospel, zydeco and Tejano. Culinary presentations include African-American southern home cooking, cowboy/chuck wagon cooking, Texas Czech, Tex-Mex and Vietnamese cuisine. Winemakers representing various grape growing regions across the state will hold demonstrations and discussions about wine in Texas, currently the fifth largest wine-producer in the nation. Presentations from each featured industry will offer exclusive insight into the endless travel opportunities within Texas.
Tourism is one of the largest industries in Texas, employing more than 521,000 Texans. In 2006, more than 205 million domestic visitors traveled to and within Texas and spent close to $54 billion, generating $2.7 billion in state taxes and $930 million in local taxes.
Initiated in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has become a national and international model of a research-based presentation of contemporary living cultural traditions. Over the years, it has brought more than 23,000 musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others to the National Mall to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and aesthetics that embody the creative vitality of community-based traditions.
This year’s festival also highlights the National Aeronatics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Kingdom of Bhutan. Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck of Bhutan, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale and representatives of the Smithsonian Institution also took part in the opening ceremonies.
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