The Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival, held in Washington every summer since 1967, will not take place this summer in its usual spot on the National Mall, which instead will be used for President Trump’s Great American State Fair.
The Smithsonian announced on Thursday that this summer, for the 250th anniversary of American independence, it will take its festival “on the road” to communities across the country and in three U.S. territories.
“By taking the Folklife Festival beyond Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian will join millions of people in their own communities to commemorate, celebrate and contemplate this national milestone,” a news release said.
The release made no direct reference to the National Mall. But a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, Linda St. Thomas, confirmed that no part of the festival would take place there.
The Folklife Festival, the Smithsonian’s oldest and largest public event, “honors contemporary living cultural traditions and celebrates those who practice and sustain them,” according to the institution’s website. Typically, the festival brings artisans, performers and speakers from all around the country to the Mall for several weeks around July 4.
This year, as part of an event called “Of The People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals,” the institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will collaborate on events with approximately 40 festivals around the country between March and November. Among the partners are the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival in March in Texas, the Concert of Colors in July in Detroit, and the National Folk Festival in November in Jackson, Miss.
The announcement cemented a shift in plans for the Smithsonian, which has been involved in a tense back and forth with the Trump administration since last spring, when the president accused the institution of promoting “a divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Last month, in response to a Trump administration ultimatum, it turned over extensive documents relating to activities at eight of its 21 museums, including plans for the 250th anniversary.
Some previously teased Smithsonian exhibitions commemorating the 250th anniversary had already fallen by the wayside, including one called “Many Americas, Many 1776s,” which was to have highlighted places beyond the 13 colonies and people often left out of traditional accounts of the nation’s founding.
But plans for the festival on the Mall remained in play until at least last spring. The Smithsonian’s 2026 budget justification, submitted to Congress last May, cited plans for an “expanded edition” that would “activate the National Mall for one month” by bringing smaller festivals from around the country to Washington.
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The event would have been something of a callback to the 1976 Bicentennial, when the festival lasted 12 weeks and drew 4.5 million visitors to the Mall to sample offerings that reflected the country’s myriad regions, ethnic groups and cultural traditions.
But this year, the task of summing up American culture and identity on the Mall will be taken up by the Great American State Fair, a plan Mr. Trump first announced on the campaign trail in 2023.
That effort will be organized by Freedom 250, a new entity Mr. Trump announced in December to organize the administration’s events for the anniversary. The events, he said in a video announcement, will “renew the patriotism, pride and pioneering spirit of America and lay the groundwork for the next 250 years of independence and freedom.”
Freedom 250’s website describes it as the official nonprofit, nonpartisan subsidiary of the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports the National Park Service. The Park Service oversees the National Mall.
Freedom 250’s other initiatives so far have included a patriotic video projection on the Washington Monument over the New Year holiday, and the “Freedom Trucks,” a mobile history exhibit that recent began touring the country.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump also announced plans for a National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving to be held on the Mall on May 17. The purpose will be “solemnly rededicating our country as One Nation under God,” according to a news release.
Last summer, the Department of Agriculture began circulating a tool kit with ideas for how states could turn their own state fairs into “patriotic epicenters,” with drone light shows, concessions selling “freedom fries” and “liberty corn dogs,” and a founders exhibit based on materials created by the conservative media platform PragerU.
Details of the national fair have been scant, and the White House did not respond to requests for comment or more information about the fair.
But the White House recently sent a “resource guide” to potential state participants, which noted a Feb. 13 deadline for committing to take part.
The document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, said that each state would be provided with a 900-square-foot pavilion, “designed in a Beaux-Arts style,” that it could use to showcase its “unique contributions.”
The pavilions will be “a blank canvas to dream big” and build “a creative and visionary narrative of yesterday, today and tomorrow,” the document said. While states can determine their own content, it will be “subject to review.”
The fair will also feature “anchor pavillions” highlighting “national pillars such as Arts & Culture, Innovation + Technology, Faith & Family, Made in America and Grown in America.”
And “throughout the Mall, towering, educational exhibits will tell the Story of America,” the document said.
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.
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