The ninth annual Latino Community Association's Festival of Cultures returns to Redmond's Centennial Park September 26 with more culture than ever before. According to Executive Director Brad Porterfield, the festival will include 15 cultural booths, 10 sponsor/business booths, nine informal Street Fair booths, 21 nonprofit Kid's Area booths, nine food vendors, and 10 performers.
"Hosting a Festival of Cultures is a gesture toward the community as a whole that says, 'You are welcome here,'" Porterfield explains. "It says we're interested in you no matter what your background is or even because of what your background is. Hospitality is a traditional American value, even if we haven't always practiced it in equitable ways throughout our history."
To illustrate that welcome, the community will witness 19 neighbors from 14 countries—including Mexico, the Philippines, Benin, China, India, Israel, Jordan, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and the United Kingdom—as they take their oaths of citizenship.
The day's festivities are as follows:
10 am: Welcome/Bienvenida
10:05 am: Official Citizenship Oath Ceremony
10:45 am: Keynote: José Balcazar
11 am: Central Oregon Showcase Chorus (Patriotic songs)
11:20 am: Parade of Cultures
Noon: Chiringa
12:45 pm: Hokule'a Ohana Polynesian Dancers
1:45 pm: Academie de Balet Clasique
2:10 pm: Miquel de Alonso
2:45 pm: Celtic Dancers
3:15 pm: Zumba Dancers
4 pm: Bachata Dancers
5 pm: "Ayayat Idait Tena Numu" Warm Springs Children's Dancers
Come down to this rich, diverse and important festival and become worldly, if only just for an afternoon.
Latino Community Association's Festival of Cultures
10 am-6 pm. Saturday, Sept. 26.
412 SW 8th St., Redmond.
