Global Fest provides cultural
atmosphere
Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant
Features Editor
Students will have the chance to view a Japanese
tea ceremony, attend a Ukrainian egg painting session, learn to use
chopsticks, sample Indonesian food or watch Turkish dancers perform
this Friday and Saturday.
West Lafayette is sponsoring Global Fest 2001 from
6 to 9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Morton Community
Center.
Global Fest, which usually draws a crowd around
4,000 people each year, celebrates many of the international cultures
represented in the Greater Lafayette Area.
Global Fest includes entertainment, a global market
place with authentic items for sale and food and culture booths where
people can learn about different cultures, according to Pennie Ainsworth,
assistant superintendent of West Lafayette Parks and Recreation.
Participants can play a passport game where people
travel to different rooms inside the Morton Center that are representative
of different cultures.
They get a stamp on their paper "passports" after
visiting a room. After all rooms are visited, participants can turn
the passport in for a prize.
This encourages people to experience all the different
rooms and cultures, according to Ainsworth.
Visitors to the Global Fest can also find out what
sorts of things are offered in the Morton Center. "We have belly dancers
and tap dancers performing," Ainsworth said.
In addition, during Global Fest, there is a Naturalization
Ceremony of over 100 people, said Brenda Lorenz, director of Morton
Community Center.
Putting together the Global Fest was an intense
process; a committee of 12 people met once a month for 10 months, said
Lorenz.
Although last year’s Global Fest was cancelled
because there was a Purdue home football game, Lorenz says she expects
a good turnout for this year's event.
"We've gotten a lot of feedback," she said. "I've
heard a lot of people say it's a great event. People were disappointed
last year when it didn't happen."
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