Thousands of people showed up this weekend to the International Festival to take in the food, music and artwork of different cultures in Houston. | Jack Wehman/The Daily Cougar
Over the weekend, Houstonians converged at the International Festival.
For the past 20 years, this festival has highlighted a different region, with this year’s event paying tribute to the Caribbean. Many streets in downtown Houston were blocked off for the mass of tents and booths to celebrate the different countries and cultures.
The International Festival fosters good will with other countries in an effort to stimulate international trade. Houston’s diversity makes it a natural catalyst for trade.
The International Festival is run by a non-profit organization. The proceeds from ticket sales go directly back to the festival, helping it to improve annually by bringing in more culturally focused exhibition every year.
The first thing that hits you when you enter the festival is the smell of the amazing food. The air was cut with the smell of savory national delicacies. From Chinese and Mexican food to Greek and Caribbean food, there was no way that someone could be there and not try the food. When people were not shopping, they were eating.
As if the smell of the food wasn’t enough to catch your interest, the creative booths set up all down the street had something that would catch your eye. Cooking shows let you in on the secrets of everything from national dishes to foreign luxuries. Commodities included items such as belly dancing scarves to authentic African clothing. The Latin booths had special items such as handmade finger puppets, purses and instruments that gave a feeling of immersion into the culture.
The festival included a Caribbean-themed zone to help Houston youths appreciate and learn more about the culture. The zone included an interactive playground with Bob Marley portraits that had famous sayings such as “One love” and “None but ourselves can free our mind.” There was also a historic castle and boat that the kids could go inside and play while reading random facts on the wall.
While walking around, patrons were greeted with different music that was played by locals in between the different sections while enjoying the sights.
Along with the food, came entertainment. Several stages were set up to display the different types of music along with the culture attached to it. The main stage, which had a Caribbean theme, featured special guest Kira, who was a member of the group Soul Sisters. Her upbeat attitude and inspirational music had everyone shaking their hips.
Music and food were also accommodated with the different arts from different countries. There was a definite difference between the art from different cultures.
My husband and I went to the Houston International Festival thinking that we would continue our Island experience from last summer’s cruise, but refused to pay the outragious $17.00 admittance fee. At this point, we were happy that we did not take our teens with us.
It had been 14 years since we last went to the festival and didn’t dream it would cost so much, especially in this economy. We decided not to pay the $34.00 admittance for the both of us and walked throughout Downtown instead and later took in a movie. I remember when there was no admittance fee. When they did start charging a fee for admittance it was reasonable. I was told when they first started charging a fee, it was to keep the homeless people out. Well, I would never pay this amount to get in.
While I agree that $17 is a lot to walk around on the street, the value for that amount can be found in the name entertainment. Parliament Funkadelic alone was well worth the entry fee. The iFest is more of a musical fest than anything else.