After more than two decades of celebrating with tango dancers and Thai chicken curry, the ASU campus still has not grown tired of embracing its place in the world.
The 21st annual World Festival provided students from more than 100 countries a chance to display their heritage and culture, said Mason Murphy, adviser in charge of programming for the International Student Office.
More than 40 international-student organizations participated in the event on Hayden Lawn, he said, including food vendors, music and dance performers, and display booths with crafts or cultural information.
The World Festival has not grown stale by using a similar format for 21 years, but rather has evolved into a tradition on campus, Murphy said.
“It’s an event that [international-student] organizations are familiar with, gravitate to, and those in attendance know that it [will be] a celebration of traditions and cultures,” he said. “People will make it a point to come to the event. … It’s just, in a sense, evolved into a signature event.”
Murphy said he felt the World Festival still draws people because of the high level of commitment from the participants and its element of cultural diversity. The mutual dialogue between those who want to share their heritage and those who want to learn more is important enough to keep the event relevant on campus, he said.
“Any student has the opportunity to come and learn about different cultures,” Murphy said. “It’s really beneficial to both audiences — both international and domestic students.”
Amirah Ismail, who participated in the World Festival both as president of the Arab Students Association and as public relations chair for the Muslim Students Association, was raising money to fund the organizations by selling hummus, pita chips and baklava. She said the exposure to so many cultures at once educated both
vendors and partakers.
“I see new groups [this year] that I never knew existed, so this is a chance for [all] students to interact in a festive way,” said Ismail, a global studies and justice studies senior.
“And I’m excited to try my neighbor’s food,” she added, referring to the Nepali dumpling vendor on her left.
Ismail said the World Festival was different enough from other events on Hayden Lawn, where groups often set up booths to attract passersby, because of its larger size and better organization.
Jessica England, an architecture freshman living at McClintock Hall next to Hayden Lawn, said most student organization events held there blend together. She came to check out the World Festival, however, because its size and setup seemed distinctive.
“Some of the events on Hayden Lawn are bland,” England said, “but [the World Festival] stands out from the ordinary.”
Linguistics sophomore Genevra Vanhoozer attended the World Festival for the second year in a row, although her first encounter was not entirely by choice.
“I was walking past it last year, and was suddenly bombarded by a bunch of people and so many cultures,” she said.
But when Vanhoozer entered the festival, the shared cultural dialogue was such an exciting experience that she made a point to return to the World Festival this year.
“We get enough of our own culture here [in the U.S.] — we’re kind of ethnocentric,” she said. “It was a chance to put ourselves in a foreign culture.“
Vanhoozer said the event is a positive experience for American college students.
“There’s so much of the world to explore,” she said. “I have so many cultures to learn about, that this event will never get stale.”
Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.
