The 3rd annual Culture Fest takes place this Saturday, April 5, bringing together the full committee to transform the venue into a collection of cultural destinations. The event offers attendees the opportunity to experience global traditions through food, customs, and interactive activities in a welcoming environment.
“Culture Fest is a great event to celebrate the different cultures, celebrate the food, costume, and different games,” co-chairman of the Parent Culture Fest Committee Wendy Zhao said, “It’s about the diverse cultures that exist in our community.”
The festival is set up so there are tables lined up with different countries at each table. The tables can showcase customs and traditions through photos and objects. Each table will be decorated with the different countries’ traditional colors and culturally important items.
“We’ve been collaborating with some other student clubs,” junior and President of HP Culture Fest William Choi said. “We’ve worked with the Asian Culture Association and the French club.”
These activities are mainly led by student volunteers, with the intent of sharing the traditions learned in clubs, classes and personal life. These stands are designed to be interactive so people can benefit from a hands-on experience with the country’s culture.
“The crafts and activity tables there, most of them are run by students,” co-chairman Esther Choi said, “So there will be Chinese calligraphy, there will be a Korean card game, and there is a French Eiffel tower building project.”
Additionally, there will be a fashion show and performances. The fashion show will portray different styles of clothing of different countries. The performances range from dances to songs to instruments.
“We have a great lineup of different people performing,” Esther Choi said, “We have a kung fu team, we have a K-pop group and a Korean fan dance. We have the high school choir singing, starting us off with the national anthem. We have a flamenco group who will be performing, as well as teaching us a few flamenco moves, then we have an African drummer group.”
This event was curated by the HP Culture Fest student committee and the HP Culture Fest parent committee, a non profit organization. The two committees divide the responsibilities, with the student committee focusing on student involvement and the parent committee focusing on financial aspects and the venue.
“We’re partnered with the parents, they help with all the finances,” William Choi said. “So our job is really just the student part of it, we get volunteers, and we make sure to advertise the event.”
This year is the first year that Culture Fest will take place at the Presbyterian Church instead of the school cafeteria. That location switch had originally been a struggle, but with the support of the community the Culture Fest was able to continue and grow in tradition. This allows for more children from different grade levels and more people in the community to attend.
“HP Presbyterian is centrally located, and they have a place that’s big enough for us,” Ms. Choi said. “They’ve been very gracious. They’ve been very accommodating.”
Despite the event being held at a church, Culture Fest has no affiliation with religion. Culture Fest’s main purpose is to celebrate cultural differences, and that theme is maintained as the event focuses on customs rather than religion.
“Culture fest is absolutely not a religious or political organization. Our whole mission is we want to leave all those differences at the door, and we’re trying to find common ground,” Esther Choi said, “ [Culture Fest] has people from all different kinds of backgrounds, what is the thing that connects us? It’s food, dance music, clothing. That’s where we feel like we can peacefully come together and enjoy and connect.”
Cultural differences are highlighted, despite the custom differences, these peaceful interactions create a form of unity. It provides a platform to explore and understand people’s customs and interact with new people. There have been weekly meetings between the parent and student committees and a two hour set up before the dance.
“I was very amazed about how the community came together, the students, the parents came together and contributed their hours, their efforts and their decorations, resources to the event.” Zhao said. “It’s a great opportunity to display those elements outside of the regular academic interactions and school interactions.”
