Festivals are central to SFA’s work. After all, we were founded to carry the spark ignited by Tucson Meet Yourself, one of the most beloved and longest-running folklife festivals in the country. A well-curated folklife festival is a public act of recognition of the traditions people carry and share and adapt to create meaning and belonging. SFA produces and participates in festivals as spaces where cultural knowledge is shared across communities, where artists are compensated for their expertise, and where everyday creativity is shared with the broadest possible audience.
Volunteers from Wat Buddhametta Thai, TMY 2025
photo by Steven Meckler
Yvette Talaswaima & Gerald Lomaventema, Hopi silversmiths
photo by Steven Meckler
Tradiciones, TMY 2025
photo by Steven Meckler
What we Present
Education Content with Arizona Bilingual
SFA and TMY serve as a presenter of interactive educational content at the Children’s Day Festival (Día del Niño) and Vive el Grito! Mexican Independence Celebration, two Arizona Bilingual events.
Of the People
This collaboration with the Smithsonian Foliklife Festival will present the Of the People Village at TMY’s October 2026 festival, featuring a Narrative & Dialogue Stage hosting facilitated civic conversations on work, culture, and belonging and Occupational Folklife Demonstrations.
Tucson Meet Yourself
Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY) is one of the longest consecutively running folklife festival in the nation and an immersive cultural experience — a free, three-day celebration held every October in downtown Tucson that has brought together the living traditional arts of Southern Arizona and the broader U.S.–Mexico border region since 1974.
Culture, Community, and Economic Vitality
Each October, Tucson Meet Yourself draws between 100,000 and 150,000 visitors to Downtown Tucson for three days of living traditional arts, music, dance, and foodways representing over 65 of the folk and ethnic communities of the Arizona-Sonora region — making it the longest consecutively running folklife festival in the nation and one of Southern Arizona’s most significant annual public gatherings. Beyond its cultural reach, TMY is a direct engine of community prosperity: food vendors — predominantly from minority and economically vulnerable communities — earn more than $1 million in direct cash sales over the course of the weekend, while the festival generates a $5.5 million multiplier effect across the local economy through parking, hospitality, raw materials, and ancillary services, and contributes an estimated $200,000 in local sales tax revenue.
Festivals Leadership
