The temperatures were on high blast Sunday, but breezes, great music and more made it a chill Sunday at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.
A couple of performers told 海角精品黑料 they were stoked to be here.
鈥淚t鈥檚 my first time playing, but not my first time at the festival,鈥� said Dr. Kari Groff, half of children鈥檚 music duo The Bright Siders.
鈥淚t鈥檚 my first time at the festival,鈥� said Kristin Andreassen, the other half of the duo. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 very 鈥� I鈥檓 excited.鈥�
This year鈥檚 theme, The Social Power of Music, struck a chord with both of them.
Groff, a child psychiatrist from Brooklyn, said, 鈥淢usic is just so healing. It鈥檚 just the most wonderful thing.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 like you get to be a secret agent of social change when you sing a song,鈥� Andreassen said.
Year 52 of the festival was a scaled-down version 鈥� in time and space 鈥� thanks to the government shutdown earlier this year that stifled time that would have been used for research, planning and securing funding.
But efforts to make sure the festival has earth-friendly practices has been going on full scale for some time 鈥� since 2014.
鈥淥ver the past few years, we鈥檝e run a program that鈥檚 helped keep over 90 percent of our waste out of the landfill,鈥� said Justin Hensley, the operations manager for the festival.
There were blue vats of cool water with several spouts for folks to refill their water bottles, cups or other drinking receptacles. Folks can even position their mouths below the spout to let the water fall in there, Hensley said.
He also said they are capturing three streams of waste, items that will be recycled, composted and items that will be sent to the landfill.
鈥淲e help with coordinating and capturing all of this compost that is being generated at this festival and reusing it for our soil,鈥� said Kristie Blumer, organic solutions manager at The Compost Crew.
Blumer said the compost stream is sent to a facility in Prince George鈥檚 County, 鈥渨hich is the commercial composting facility in the area.
“And all of that soil gets used in our agricultural land, in our local community gardens, but not just that 鈥� it鈥檚 also (used at) construction sites to reduce runoff,鈥� Blumer said.
鈥淭he big takeaway for us is to just ask the question of 鈥榃hat is this thing in my hand, and where does it go?鈥� Because when you finish with it, [that] doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 done,鈥� Hensley said.
