Cultural Event 4 - International Festival

    On April 26, 2008 at 12pm I attended the International Festival in the downtown Chico plaza. The plaza was filled with people and music could be herd from three blocks away. The stage in the plaza was the center of entertainment and there were approximately 24 booths of food that surrounded the stage. The booths were serving traditional foods of their specific culture. Types of food that could been found included Spanish, Mexican, Pilipino, Indian, Hawaiian, Chinese and Thai. With all the aromas combined people could decide on what to eat. Price of food was cheap and small so that everyone could earn money for their organization and promote their culture of different foods. It was impressive to see how accepting young children were to these different types of foods. The booths were run my student organizations including M.E.C.C.A, Dance forkolio, P.I.C, S.E.L.A.C, and several multicultural Greek organizations. The people serving the food in each booth wore clothes that represented their culture; this added to the festivals authenticity. There were people of all age that attended this festival. Everyone was accepted to join the festival even pets. People walked around with smiles on there faces as they ate there ethnic foods and listen to a Brazilian drum line called the “Loyd Family Players.” The drum line consisted of many different types and sizes of drums, as well as whistles and rattles. Then drum line consisted of men and women who were of all ages wearing red and white garments. The drums looked as though they were aluminum and there sticks were wooden. The whole drum lined moved with the beat using there feet in such a way that they shifted from left to right moving faster and slower according to the rhythm. The sounds of the drum became contagious people started moving their feet with the beat, little kids were dancing in circles and soon everyone around the stage was dancing to the music. They played for about an hour and the crowed kept getting larger, I couldn’t help but join in on all the dancing.

    Overall, I thought this was an excellent cultural event, because I feel I learned a little bit more about each culture that is present on our campus. This was the first time I had seen so much culture in one place at one time in Chico. It made me more aware of the people that surround me on a daily basis, which is a great eye opener. I hope this event becomes an annual occurrence so that culture can be spread throughout Chico every year.