Twenty-six cultures that call Skokie home will be celebrated at the 31st Annual Skokie Festival of Cultures, May 20 and 21 at Oakton Park, 4701 Oakton St., Skokie.
This year, visitors to the event will once again enjoy ethnic entertainment, arts and crafts, cultural displays, games, and foods from participating cultures. So far, organizers say the following cultures will be represented this year: Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Belizean, Bulgarian, Chinese (ROC), Chinese (PROC), Croatian, Filipino, Habeshan, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Korean, Laotian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgian, Mexican, Norwegian, Pakistani, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, and United States.
The event is presented by the Skokie Park District, the Village of Skokie, the Skokie Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Skokie Public Library, with a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
The festival runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days and admission is free.
When visitors enter the park, they will be given a free “Passport to the World,” which is an official guide to all the activities at the festival and which includes a map to help them navigate the many booths and events at the 19-acre park.
“You can visit all the booths and get a stamp on that passport,” said Aryn Fletcher, the Skokie Park District’s Oakton Community Center Manager, who is the chairperson of the Festival Planning Committee.
Fest-goers who fill the passport at the booths will be eligible for giveaways.
One favorite returning activity is the opening ceremony, which will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the World Showcase Stage, the larger of the festival’s two stages. (The smaller one is called the Family Interactive Stage.)
“That will involve all of our cultures in a large parade,” said Robin Horwitz, Devonshire Cultural Center Manager. “They come across the stage and they introduce themselves and they’re with their flags. After they introduce themselves as an individual culture, they all surround a very large American flag, bringing us all together.” Afterwards everyone sings the national anthem.”
Recalling last year’s rain during the festival, Horwitz laughingly declared that “What’s new (this year) is going to be good weather.”
There will also be a wide variety of entertainment by all of the participating cultures, with 34 acts scheduled on the two stages.
“We’ve got the main stage and that’s always good for our bigger groups—15, 20, 35 people,” Horwitz said. “Our more intimate groups will be on the smaller stage, which is near the children’s area, towards the south end of Oakton Park. Those are some really great groups, too. It’s just a more intimate style.”
Horwitz revealed that some of the groups on the smaller stage will allow attendees to participate. “It will be great for the kids to interact with them and dance,” Horwitz said.
“There’s also a Korean Taekwondo company and they involve the public doing some teaching.”
A large number of dance groups will perform both days. “We tend to be really rich in cultural and folkloric dance,” Horwitz noted.
Chicago Cossacks will be dancing again. “They have been back with us year after year,” Horwitz reported. “They’ll be representing the Ukrainians. We’re all very interested in that culture right now.”
One highlight on the small stage will be Mariachi singer Arnulfo Cardenas.
The closing act on Sunday for many years has been the Assyrian American Civic Club of Chicago.
“They dance through the crowd and get the crowd dancing in a long line,” Horwitz said. “It’s a great way to wind up the festival.”
Most of the participating cultures will have booths where they will display items related to their heritage. Once again, people can have their name written in Chinese by a woman who will also dance during the festival.
There will be a wide array of ethnic food for purchase. “We’ve almost doubled the size of the food vendors,” Fletcher reported.
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The children’s area has also been expanded. For a $5 fee, kids can enjoy a variety of activities.
“We added some new bounce houses this year and we have a couple of large action games, and also some lawn games,” Fletcher said.
For more information about the Skokie Festival of Cultures, call the Skokie Park District at 847- 674-1500 during business hours or visit skokieculturefest.org.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter.