Wales at the USA Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Pictures property and courtesy of Caribousteaks

Wales and Welsh culture are a featured nation at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC. - rugby, lovespoons and beer on the USA national Mall!

A pub on the National Mall!

Tag rugby lessons on the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle, the original museum building, now an administrative building

Jon Langford, "The Newport man who played for Obama"

Jon Langford, a native of Newport who lives with his family in Chicago, a member of this site, posted a quiet link on his page and when I went to look at it, found that he was just in Washington, DC for President Barak Obama's inauguration and performed at an inaugural ball.

From the South Wales Argus:

"AS the United States' first black President was sworn in, a Newport-born man had a ringside seat to history being made.

"Musician and artist Jon Langford, 51, a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, had played at a Washington DC ball to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration the night before, and had a seat at the event being watched by millions of people around the world."
...

"Mr Langford performed six hours of country-punk with his current band the Waco Brothers in a sell-out event celebrating Obama's links with Chicago.

"'The concert was incredible and an illustration of how things are changing. I performed with blues singer David Honeyboy Edwards, who's 94. God knows what things were like when he was a kid,' said Mr Langford."

Read the rest of this really fantastic article and what Jon Langford says about the experience HERE.