St. Louis is getting a little extra flavor this weekend.
The International Institute of St. Louis, a foundation dedicated to providing outreach and assistance to the local immigrant community is throwing the Festival of Nations this Saturday and Sunday in Tower Grove Park. The event brings together representatives from many cultures located in the St. Louis community for two days of entertainment, food and shopping for authentic, often handmade goods.
“For the most part, what we have is the truest type of authenticity … Here, it is people really representing their own nations,” Ann Rynearson, director for the event, said. “We have Native Americans and old- time Missouri fiddlers. We try to get as many cultures as involved as possible.”
The festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary under leadership by the International Institute after having previously been hosted a few times throughout the ’90s under a different foundation.
Rynearson sees the goals of the institute as perfectly suited to the planning of an event like this.
“We had the mechanisms to put an event like this on,” she said. “We had partnerships with the different ethnic groups that do the food booths and the artists.”
In order to assemble the large number of entertainers and vendors necessary to put on the festival, Rynearson relies on connections made through the institute and an extensive amount of legwork.
“My staff and I make an aggressive effort to go to different cultural festivals and seek out new vendors,” she said. “We have two big kinds of vendors. We have food booths managed by people from different ethnic groups … The only continent we’re missing is Antarctica. We cover the world.”
Rynearson says she is often approached by people from cultures not represented at the festival and uses this as a recruitment tool.
“One of the things I most enjoy is having people come up to me and say, ‘Where are the Moroccans?’ And I say, ‘We’d love to have them.’ And this year we have a Moroccan food and gift booth,” she said.
Perhaps the Festival of Nations biggest attraction is the wide array of food available for purchase. However, Rynearson feels the essential aspect is the entertainment and activities provided.
“We ask people, ‘What did you like best?’ And they always say, ‘the food’ . . . However, the arts is what people spend most of their time on,” she said. “We’ve got well over 100 acts performing . . . You can take dance lessons . . . You don’t have to just watch things. You can get out and do it.”
In addition to the cuisine and shows, many cultural groups are represented in a number of vendors located within the park, selling everything from jewelry from Israel to handmade Chinese slippers.
“There [are] all sorts of things,” Rynearson said. “There’s an Indian booth that sells the most beautiful things. There [are] many African booths that sell beautiful fabric . . . There’s a Chinese woman that sells beautiful, embroidered pieces.”
Rynearson can’t help indulging in the shopping opportunities herself.
“My husband’s practically taking the wallet away from me as I’m walking out the door,” she said.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of the festival for students, however, is the price of admission.
“All the entertainment is free,” she said. “We make every effort to make sure no one misses out on getting to do something.”
Though the bulk of the festival will take place between South Grand Boulevard and Arsenal, a shuttle will run all day to take attendees parked in Tower Grove to the event. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
For more information about the International Institute of St. Louis and the Festival of Nations, including a schedule of performers, visit www.iistl.org.
