Carrollton event-handling officials will hold the Carrollton Culture Fest at the Downtown Carrollton Square Sept. 28 from 3-9 p.m. It will include activities, food stands and feature five different performing groups.
”Carrollton is home to so many diverse cultures,” Carrollton community events supervisor Emma Bailey said. “We wanted to dedicate an event to highlight the ways [that] they make [Carrollton] stand out.”
Carrollton has hosted the festival annually for six years. For the past five years, though, the festival has been named the World of Foodies Festival. Carrollton’s event supervisors decided to change the name to the Carrollton Culture Fest to move the emphasis away from food and toward culture as a whole.
“We wanted to create a platform for them to show off their talents,” Bailey said. “The event also gives people a chance to come together and experience how great our community’s diversity is.”
The festival will also have face painting and calligraphy activities to participate in. The festival is open to all ages, and costed about $20,000 to fund, with help from sponsors. The event is admission-free.
”The Carrollton Culture Festival is geared toward everyone,” Bailey said. “It’s the perfect space for families, kids, both young and old adults — everyone.”
The festival now includes new performances from different ethnic groups, such as the dance group Kathak Rhythms — a North Indian dance school that practices the dance form “Kathak.” This dance form originated over 2,000 years ago and has Indian, Persian and British influences.
“For the Carrollton Culture Fest, we’ve lined up a bunch of pieces that follow our traditional repertoire,” Kathak Rhythms director Sunaina Rao said. “We start with an invitation, then we go on with a few technical and expressive pieces and we have an interactive piece planned for the end.”
Food stands will offer cuisines from various cultures, such as an African beignet stand and a southern sweets stand. Another stand is Redneck Ronin, based on a combination of Japanese, Hawaiian and Texan food influences.
”I’ve been cooking my whole life,” Redneck Ronin’s head chef, Deron Hawamoto, said. “Since I was five and immigrated from Hawaii to Texas, the aspects of my culture from there and here intertwined [into] my cooking.”
Redneck Ronin’s name was made in reference to both a Japanese “Ronin” — a type of wandering samurai — and a “Redneck,” a working-class American who lives in rural areas. He said the stand is most known for their gourmet wontons, which come with fillings like ribeye, which Hawamoto said is a fan favorite. This is the third year Redneck Ronin will appear at the festival.
“I was looking specifically for events where people would be looking for things that were different, like I do,” Hawamoto said. “It’s always best to go to places where people are interested in your product.”
Most food sellers applied to be a part of the festival. The festival invited the performing groups to join; they didn’t need to apply.
“Every time we have an invitation to perform, we try to see what we have ready to go, and figure out a sequence,” Rao said. “Our choreographies are very traditional. The dance is strongly based on Hindu culture. Nowadays, because it’s a storytelling art form, we try to expand outside of Hindu culture and make it more relatable to the audience.”
