International Festival

I have been looking forward to this event for a few weeks.  It is an annual event celebrating cultural diversity. As the website says. "The festival is a traditional celebration that honors the heritage and diversity among our residents through music, dance, demonstrations, authentic foreign foods, edu-tainment activities, cultural displays and an international bazaar". It draws in people from surrounding counties as well as here in Bowling Green.  

They put together a Passport Booklet with information from the 35 countries represented at the festival. As you visit each booth you are given a flag sticker from that country to go in your Passport Booklet. Several of the area schools give students extra credit for bringing their Passport Booklets to school with many or all of the different flag stickers. Even one of my daughter's college classes is giving extra credit for an upcoming quiz if they bring their booklet to class with at least 10 flags in it. We got 22 of the 35. 

These are the shirts that I picked up today.

I love sampling some of the foods from the different booths.  Today I tried African Donuts, Japanese Pancakes and Vietnamese Glutinous Rice Balls.  Each one was very tasty. I even brought some of the donuts home. 

While the food is a great part of the festival, the entertainers are my favorite part. There are three separate stages with performances going at all times throughout the day. 



These ladies are from a local Greek restaurant and perform their traditional Greek dance at the restaurant on certain nights.

They sling their heads a lot in their dance, hence the odd hair in this shot.

Their Belly Dance is one of the crowd favorites, especially with the guys. They are quite good and can move their stomachs in ways no one should be able to. 









I don't know how she dances, especially with all the hip shaking that she does, with the knife on her head. 














It was so sweet when the lady's daughter came up on stage to dance, and she could do the dance pretty darn good too.

 
The West African Drums and Dance was one of the best. The 
drumming beat of the music along with the expressive dance was fun and entertaining. The group's name is Sabari Bengoma and the dancers are the TWAA Dance Company.  

Usually I bounce back and forth between 
the stages. But, I stayed for their full show.

Each drum had its own sound and each drummer had a solo at one point or another.

Mr. Maurice Moro played the African Thumb Piano and explained how to hold your hands properly to do so.

He also played the 
Likembe. 

The Likembe close up.

There was Traditional Burmese Dance.  They asked the Burmese Community to dance along with them. The gentleman on the end, and the lady with the yellow scarf, had such fun dancing along. 

I couldn't resist snapping a shot of the Bosnian Children waiting to perform.

From where I was standing, I was only able to get a shot of the beginning of their performance. As they began dancing several people got in front of me. grrrrr

There was Celtic music from the group, Feckless Fear Deuig. (say that three time fast) 

I thought it was cute that the smallest one in this group was the one doing the hair for her fellow Traditional Chinese Dance performers.







Another of the Traditional Chinese Dance performers.

HuDost- 
Eastern Country
Fusion with yet another dancer with a knife across her head.

The Japanese Bon Dance was interesting. The leader of the dance group asked for volunteers from the crowd to dance with them. He gave them a jacket/shirt like the dancers were wearing and told them what to do as they went along.









There were three circles of dancers, one around the other.  Several times in their dance they would all come together in the middle as they danced. It was a fun performance.










This little cutie was one of the Japanese dancers.  She did her best to keep up but had to have a little help every now and then.

I wanted to see the performance of La Luz Del Mundo Dancers but missed it. I got back to this stage just as they were finishing their last dance. But they were happy to pose for a picture for me. 












This gentleman was attempting to teach people basic Chinese.

And, I had to capture the drums sitting near one of the stages when I saw the shadows they were casting.


It was a great day for a festival, with perfect weather and tons of things to see and do. I already look forward to next year!

Linked to:

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Your Sunday Best

Straight Out of The Camera