Ethnic Enrichment Festival

Kansas City has a large park, Swope Park, similar to Central Park in New York. Ours is just less populated. Swope Park is where the city zoo is housed. There is also an outdoor theatre in the park, Starlight. I volunteer at Starlight each summer as a back stage tour guide for their theatre productions. This summer is no exception. A group of girlfriends and I volunteer for the Wednesday night shows. This is my sixth year as a summer Starlight volunteer. Our last show of the season is in a couple of weeks. I'm disappointed about that because it usually marks the end of the summer. I'm not ready for summer to end. Swope Park also has a nature center, including a lake where people fish and lots and lots of green space.

Each year there is an event held at Swope Park the third week of August, the Ethnic Enrichment Festival. I look forward to this event each year. They have representatives from approximately 50 countries. Each country has a booth with food, cultural artifacts for sale and usually some area with information about the country represented. There is a stage area with performances; dances, music, fashion. Kenyon accompanied me this year. We had so much fun! We ate something from at least 10 different booths; Indian tacos from the American Indian booth, hummus from the Israel booth, a dessert from Croatia, a special fruit soda from Brazil, and the list goes on. We watched an international fashion show, flaminco dancers from Spain, and a Brazilian martial arts demonstration. We spent hours there. They give the kids fake passports. Each booth has a passport stamp. The idea is to encourage the kids to visit each country and learn something about the place and the people. My favorite thing this year was that I learned in Vietnam when greeting someone, rather than ask "how are you?" they ask, "have you eaten yet?" I find that amusing. What happens if the answer is "no." Are you then obligated to feed them? Just a thought...

We left when I couldn't eat any more and had worn myself out. I think Kenyon would have continued to walk around, but I was ready to go. As we were leaving he said, "we are definitely coming back to this next year." He spent most of his life in KC and had never heard of this event. The festival has been around for 27 years! You're welcome to join us next year...mark your calendars for the third weekend in August.