UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures introduced the Folklife Festival in 1972 to celebrate the many cultures found in Texas. The annual festival took place at the Texas Pavilion, a historical landmark spanning 10 acres. The event would last for over three to four days, with approximately 100,000 Texans coming to celebrate and share their culture as a collective. ITC has not hosted the Folklife festival for the past five years.
When the festival was up and running it highlighted over 40 nationalities, including Belgians, Scotts, Mexicans and Romanians. Each group had a booth showcasing their hand made crafts and food, to San Antonio and Texas overall. Former director of the Folklife Festival, Jo Ann Andrea, participated as a Lebanese dancer when the event was first established in 1972. Andrea gave an extensive recapitulation of the years she was part of the celebration of Texan cultures.
The Folklife Festival aimed to help all cultures be showcased to the citizens of San Antonio. Uniting a community of thousands of people was said to be a “problem solver” according to Andrea, and to “bring people together in celebration of a lot of the things that we all shared in common.” The diversification of participants of the festival included people from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Some groups would present how they came to settle in San Antonio. The Canary Islanders in particular made a presentation of how they settled in San Antonio, displaying an ancestral relationship with the city and the generations of people who found solace here.
Everyone’s skills and contributions were showcased through pioneer crafts. Each year there would be artisans and craft makers, with basket makers, potters, rope makers, sheep shearing, goose plucking and even a masterclass on how to build a log cabin. Many stages spanned across the festival introducing musical and dance performances. Some of the most popular performances according to Andrea were the “Lebanese folk dancers” and the “Hawaiian Aloha electric group.”
There was a sense of responsibility that the organizers of the festival felt that they had to do when showcasing the many cultures that occupy the Texas community. It was essential to “showcase them and introduce them to our community,” Andrea said. She continued, “This was a Texas Folklife Festival. Although it was located in San Antonio. People came from East Texas, West Texas, to be a part of this, and it was a celebration of Texas, not just San Antonio.”
After the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, the festival was discontinued. In the time since the festival’s hiatus, the ITC closed in May 2024.
“It was a defining moment not just for us, but for many festivals across the United States,” Andrea said. The legacy of the Folklife Festival will forever be embedded in the history of San Antonio.
