Wii demo at low-tech music festival

Contrary to predictions, Sunday in Seattle was sunny and warm, so I took my daughter down to the annual Northwest Folklife Festival, a donation-funded event at the Seattle Center.

Tubas, banjos, hand drums, and...a Wii Balance Board?

(Credit: Nintendo)

Because of its focus on traditional forms of music, Folklife is an unusually low-tech festival. There was a Balkan dance band, Orkestar Zirkonium, with oom-pah tuba holding down the bass and various brasses, woodwinds, and string instruments weaving Eastern European melodies. There was a bagpipe/drum duet, Nae Regrets, that seemed to be playing a version of "Tom Sawyer" by Rush. There was a youth fiddle orchestra from British Columbia. There was a learn-to-bang-a-drum tent, a hippie drum circle, and random ensembles in the walkways with lots of string basses, banjos, small drum kits, and other non-amplified instruments. The crowd was wearing traditional folk costumes (tartan kilts, dashikis), tie-tye, and this retro-depression look that's been popping up recently in Seattle (knee pants, suspenders, hats with brims).

Right in the middle of this aggressively low-tech festival, standing out like an alien spaceship, was a white-and-green demonstration booth filled with high-definition TVs. There, attractive young women in skintight costumes who looked like they should have been at E3 were demoing Wii Fit, a fitness game that's played with a balance board. I watched some kids laugh at each other as they played the hula hoop part of the game, then wandered on, scratching my head. It looked like an interesting game, but I'm puzzled why Nintendo decided to demo it at Folklife. Is there some crossover between folk music fans and Wii users?

[4schler]

nintendo's american headquarters are near (or in?) seattle... maybe an employee who was familiar with the event thought that it might be a good marketing spot to attract an even broader audience to their 'for-the-casual/non-gamer' system. despite being at a low-tech festival, a majority of people at such events (at least as i'm familiar with them) are pretty darn open-minded, and so would probably not be terribly opposed to such an innovative system that goes beyond pushing buttons while sitting on your couch.

also, any game with hula-hoops and yoga in it is bound to appeal to at least a few hippies :)