Logo of a World Festival
Air date: Friday, September 9, 2022
The One World Festival will be held this weekend at Franklin and Marshall College on Sunday, September 11th from 11:30 am to 6:30 pm in the Alumni Sports and Fitness Center.
Deepa Balepur, chairwoman of the One World Festival Committee and president of the Indian Organization of Lancaster County; Dorothy Dulo, vendor coordinator for the festival and founder and director of Rafiki Africa; and Dr. Nick Serrano, a retired family physician and member of the Greek Orthodox Church appeared on Smart Talk to discuss the festival.
The idea for a festival celebrating world cultures was born in 2018 when Balepur spoke to a woman attending the Indian Asian festival.
“She said, ‘Well, today is a very special day for Lancaster County.’ And my question was why? Why do you say that?” Balepur said. “Her response was, ‘Well, you know, I love Indian food, so I’m starting my day here. And then from here I’ll go to downtown Lancaster because Rafiki has their African-American festival there, after which I’ll go to Long’s Park because the Latin American community is having their festival there. Wouldn’t it be great if you could all get together and do this in one place? It would be so convenient and so much fun.’
“And, you know, it kind of just stuck with me. The next day I picked up the phone, called the organizers of the other festivals and said, ‘I have this crazy idea,'” Balepur said.
In addition to sharing commfor values, cultural heritage, music and dance, there will be to be quite diverse of foods on Sunday.
“We will have Indian food from the Taj Mahal. We will have African food from Rafiki”, said Dulo. “We’ll have Greek food from Gus’s Restaurant. We’ll have Italian food from Piccolo Eatery, we’ll have Latin food, Puerto Rican food and some Mexican food. We will have African/Southern Soul Food from X marks the Spot. It’s really fun to see such a variety come together in one place.”
The event is free, open to the community; and will be a huge celebration of the region’s diverse cultures with food, entertainment, shopping and more.
