The Living Traditions Festival celebrates the traditional ethnic music, dance, crafts, and food that are vitally important elements in the lives of many Salt Lake Valley citizens. These traditions are not just for festivals or special occasions, but are part of everyday life, linking each ethnic group through families and communities and across generations. They are symbols of the community's past, its origins and its heritage and through these traditions, communities perpetuate themselves and individuals gain a sense of their own cultural identity.

Here at the festival music and dance are performed by many of our valley's talented residents, some of whom learned their performance skills in their native lands; others having honed their knowledge here from teachers, parents and master performers. Ethnic crafts are demonstrated by artisans intent on keeping alive the traditional art forms of their cultural heritage. And ethnic cuisines cooked in kitchens throughout the valley are represented in a marvelous feast of aromas, flavors, colors and textures.

We hope you enjoy experiencing the many facets of traditional culture presented here at at the Living Traditions Festival, and invite you to join us, in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding, in celebrating our cultural traditions of or neighbors and friends and in sharing our own living traditions.