The Pelican Rapids Multicultural Committee will host its 17th International Friendship Festival this year on Saturday, June 18, at Sherin Park in Pelican Rapids, Minn.
The International Friendship Festival offers families in the region a food and entertainment experience featuring performers from six different cultures and ethnic food samples from the native countries of Pelican Rapids residents.
New Event This Year
New this year is a project called Voices and Visions of Resilience. Organizers plan to have an audio booth at the event to record videos of local people interviewing their friends and loved ones about their lives. Each person will leave with a virtual link to watch and share their interview online.
At the same time, a long muslin banner will be used for community engagement by artist Nancy Valentine to help people paint, draw or write their stories of resilience. In addition, filmmaker Deb Wallwork will produce and edit a documentary video combining the words and the art. Plans are to exhibit the video and the banner at the Pelican Rapids Public Library and the Otter Tail County Historical Society later in the summer.
Food options include local Mexican food, American BBQ, Vietnamese egg rolls, sambusa (meat pies), Gyros, Italian Ices, Somali tea, and ethnic desserts. Craft demonstrations will feature arts from around the world, and kid's activities include a piñata, a bouncy house, and kid-friendly crafts. The entertainment schedule and performers are noted below.
Pelican Rapids Multicultural Committee is almost twice as old as the Friendship Festival
The Pelican Rapids Multicultural Committee was formed in 1992 with a mission "to promote cultural awareness and foster respect, appreciation, and understanding that crosses cultural barriers by providing opportunities for dialogue, learning, sharing and socializing through art, music and food."
The goal of the Friendship Festival is to bring people from diverse backgrounds together through music and food. For new immigrants to the United States, it will be a celebration of things that they may have lost in coming to a new country. For long-time locals, it will be an introduction to sounds and flavors with which they might not be familiar but which are becoming a part of the history and culture of Otter Tail County. But for everyone attending, it will be a celebration of incredible music, bright flavors, and new friends.
The 2022 Schedule:
10:45-11:15 Band of Faith
11:15-11:30 Multi-Lingual Introductions and honored guests
11:30-12:15 Klezmaniacs
12:30-1:15 Vietnamese Traditional Music of MN
1:30-2:15 Fargo Spelmannslag
2:30-3:15 Ballet Folklorico Mexico Azteca
3:30-4:15 Buffalo river Drum and Dance Group
4:30-5:15 Somali Dance Troupe
5:15-5:30 Closing