On Sunday evening, Juan Tavares could see the people piling into the Regency Ballroom of the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center from where he was standing. People crowded around the decorated booths of the participating international student organizations and watched the artistic performances from students.

An hour into its inaugural opening, more than 300 people attended SU’s International Fest. Tavares, director of the Center for International Services, said next year he hopes for 5,000 attendees and more participating associations.

“I think people are very happily surprised about the event,” said Tavares.

The festival showcased nine organizations that competed for the recognition of best combination of booth and performance, which the Jiuge Chinese Classical Culture Association won. The Haitian American Students Association took second place and the Black Graduate Students Association placed third.

Vice President of HASA, Denise Magny, said each organization had been there since 11 a.m. to set up their booths. Magny said it probably took more than 10 hours of planning to figure out their needs and setup.

For the groups, the event offers a great platform to raise awareness and membership, said Salar Lone, vice president of the Pakistani Student Association.

“It’ll also help bridge cultures,” Lone said. “A lot of students that are here at Syracuse that were born and raised in the U.S., it’ll help them tie back to their roots in Pakistan as well as students that are coming from Pakistan.”

Sylvia Omollo, a 22-year-old senior from Kenya, said the festival had a reminiscent quality, allowing people to think of their home country, culture or region.

Each booth featured objects and art from their culture – a World Cup soccer ball made from Pakistan at the PSA booth; henna at the booth for the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture amongst Youth @ SU; and Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” translated in Creole at HASA’s booth.

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Each club also offered samplings of traditional food from their region – Chinese dumplings, crepes from France and strawberry milk from the Indigenous Student Association. Students, along with help of a dining hall on campus, helped make each dish, converting the recipes to accommodate a large number of attendees.

The samples were sold for the price of one or two tickets, each $1 at the event’s entrance. All profits made from the samplings are given back to the organization.

In addition to the competition, the event was coordinated in the hopes of sharing the diversity and inclusiveness of SU’s community.

Gaurav Shetty, the treasurer of La Société Francophone, said that the festival gives people exposure to different cultures that they might not have seen before.

“By tasting their food, that’s something that we all know and love, everyone is connected through food, and so I think it’s a great way to teach people about different cultures that they haven’t experienced before,” Shetty said.

 

DISCLAIMER: Gaurav Shetty is a sports writer for The Daily Orange. He does not work for or interact with the Pulp section, nor does he influence its editorial content as a sports writer.

Published on November 4, 2019 at 11:50 pm