Enrich the Saturday of October 10 with the colorful Parade of Nations at Haggard Pavilion Park from 11-5 p.m. Cherish and live up the multicultural experience of the Plano International Festival as you watch the cultural performances, feast on ethnic cuisines, and enjoy the cultural displays.
“It is so gratifying to see how the Festival keeps growing,” festival president Graciela Katzer said.
In last year’s festival, over 100 cultures were represented, and 75 new citizens were sworn in during the naturalization ceremony. This year, Katzer expects 12,000 visitors to attend.
More importantly, though, the event is eco-friendly. The Plano International Festival won the Environment Award of Excellence for their steps for a better environment in their 2008 festival. The event last fall had provided food vendors with 100% biodegradable plates and bowls and had asked attendees to sort their trash into organic, recyclable, and regular trash bins. Organic waste was then collected by the city and sent for composting. As a result, over 50% of all festival waste was recycled and composted, leading to a huge reduction in landfill waste.
“We are very excited to have won this award,” Katzer said. “We showed that a large public event like ours can be green, and we hope that other events and organizations will follow in our footsteps.”
Furthermore, the German club from our school will perform their folk dance at the festival. The students participated last year, too. For the past couple of weeks, they have been practicing the dance routine twice a week for two hours to make sure they are near perfection. Also, a week before the festival, the club will have three performances at the Texas State Fair. Therefore, they have been allocating much time to preparation to both the fair and the festival.
“The dancers put in a tremendous amount of effort,” German teacher Beth Smith said. “We have very few remaining dancers for this year, so it is a challenge. The new dancers are terrific and with the help of the experienced dancers, they are doing extremely well.”
When the German club dancers mess up their routine during practice, the formation would be all out of order. Students would be out of place or out of where they are supposed to stand. Therefore, the students must make sure there are no flaws to their performance on October 10.
“It would be so embarrassing if we messed up,” senior Maddeleine Riccardi said. “I remember that last year I was really nervous for our first performance and I almost forgot where I was supposed to go. Thankfully, I didn’t.”