Folklife is not just a spectator sport! At TMY, we invite you inside culture to learn and experience more. Between performance stages and winding paths of food vendors, you’ll find a constellation of micro-pavilions — intimate, immersive hubs organized around a single theme, community, or tradition. Each pavilion gathers performances, workshops, conversations, and sometimes food into under one tent. New themes and culture step into the pavilion spotlight each year. Past micro-pavilions have brought festival audiences inside flamenco (La Caseta Flamenca) and Peruvian culture (Pabellón Perú). For TMY’s 50th anniversary, festival goers enjoyed a look back at the world of 1974 in The Way We Were.

In 2026 the festival will feature ten micro-pavilions from returning favorites like the Spanish and Peruvian pavilions to new experiences including Asian, Kazakh and Disability Cultures pavilions, among others.