Folklife boasts more than just folk

In spite of its name, Folklife isn't just a celebration of twangy guitars and howling harmonies. Folklife presents an opportunity to hear Argentinean dance music, West African harp, and local pop, rock and hip-hop all in one weekend for free.

Although the festival is best known for bringing in traditional sounds from almost every continent, the local and pop music represent the scope of music variations offered at Folklife, including genres whose names sound more like a magnetic poetry experiment ("psychedelic sci-fi rap jazz") and some genres that don't even sound possible, like chiptune, a style of electronica that uses old-school eight-bit-sound video game consoles to create the music.

"Just think of replacing turntables with Game Boys," says Nick Walthew, better known in the chiptune scene as Fighter X from Seattle. "It's definitely nothing that's been done at Folklife before."

Fighter X is playing in the 8-Bit Showcase of chiptune artists Saturday night at the Vera Project, headlined by genre icon Sabrepulse of Scotland.

Other programs follow themes transcending musical genre, such as the "Labor Program" on Saturday morning featuring labor-related protest songs or the quirky "Mixed Fruit: A LGBTQ Variety Show," where the audience can catch modern square dancing right before a hip-hop and dance DJ set.

Seattle Sound magazine will also sponsor some less eccentric showcases of local bands, including The Lonely Forest and Sol, a hip-hop act that won EMP's February Sound Off! contest for young artists.

Like any festival, Folklife thrives on the energy of the attendees, organized beer garden singalongs being one example. Each of these singalongs scattered throughout the weekend is themed, from sea shanties to drinking songs from around the world.

On the more educational side, the festival also features interactive workshops on different styles and aspects of music, including ones on the didgeridoo, Kurdish dance, blues guitar, improvisational singing, and how to write a music biography, among others.

Branching away from music, Folklife also features several cultural performances.

Sunday night's schedule at the Charlotte Martin Theatre closes with a Chinese art showcase. The showcase begins with a performance from the Seattle Chinese Orchestra, followed by songs and stories of Kathy Gong-Greene, and ends with the award-winning Chinese rod puppet tales performed by Dragon Art Studio from Portland, who will also be giving a workshop on Chinese rod puppetry.

"Chinese puppetry is a very unique art," says Brenda Xu of Dragon Art Studio. "We're looking forward to showing it to the audience."

Dragon Art Studio has appeared at Folklife in the past, and the studio's main puppeteers, Yuqin Wang and Zhengli Xu, have been performing together for more than 45 years for audiences around the country.

"Some are folk tales, and some we created ourselves," Brenda Xu says of the stories that the group will present at Folklife.

One stage at the festival will be devoted entirely to international dances, and the styles of dance represented on that stage and elsewhere at the festival are as varied as the music. Hula and ballroom will be on show, but also Appalachian dance and Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art and dance form.

In addition to the performances and workshops, Folklife also features unique vendors with crafts from around the world.

In the new Living Green Courtyard, Seattle Urban Farm Company will have representatives as well as their own urban farm on exhibit. The company offers services to individuals and businesses looking to start an "urban farm" in their backyard, sharing expertise on raising vegetables, herbs and even chickens and goats.

"If you walk down the neighborhood you can hear them," says Colin McCrate, farmer with Seattle Urban Farm Company, of the goats. "It's somewhat of a subculture, but there's definitely at least a few thousand households in the city with chickens."

Ultimately, Folklife is a celebration of diverse cultures through music, food and dance and gives locals the opportunity to dabble in this celebration annually for free.