While most justification for festival research and programming focuses on capturing or salvaging cultural diversity, folklorists are only just beginning to become reflexive about our own work and to engage in a systematic cultural critique of our assumptions and programmes. This volume is an exercise in reflexivity which grew out of the Michigan Programme at the 1987 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. The Michigan Programme is an interesting case study not only because festival is one of the most debated and large-scale public sector products, but also because this particular festival represents a unique confluence of events; a state programme within one of the nation's most influential folklife festivals, which led to an ongoing state folklife festival in Michigan, studied by a team of Indiana University folklorists through a pioneering ethnography of the participant experience. CONTENTS INCLUDE: A Short History of American Folklife and Michigan's Contribution to Smithsonian Practice; An Ethnography of Participant Experience; The Festival of American Folklife and the Festival of Michigan Folklife: Catalysts for Cultural Conservation and Preservation.