The second annual Town of North Hempstead Asian American Festival on May 21 at North Hempstead Beach Park is expected to top last year’s inaugural festival in program content and attendance.
The cultural event celebrates the music, dancing and cuisine of Americans with ethnic roots in India, Pakistan, China, Korea and Japan. The festival is an opportunity for the respective ethnic groups to get better acquainted with each other’s culture, as non-Asian town residents also get an exposure to the diverse cultural groups participating.
This year’s festival will feature Chinese lion dancers, Japanese Taiko drumming, a demonstration of the Japanese tea ceremony and booth for application of Indian henna tattoos, according to Gina Sillitti, the festival organizer who is Town of North Hempstead deputy commissioner for the department of community services.
Sillitti said she’s getting plenty of help from a committee of 25 people representing the five ethnic groups in the festival.
This year’s festival starts at noon with speeches from Town of Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman and others at 1 p.m. Various music and dance performances will start in the early afternoon and continue through 6 p.m. There will also be interactive exhibits on boardwalk and a food pavilion with local restaurants filling the menus.
“The lion dance is very traditional so we’ll have it for the opening ceremony,” said Alice Chan, past co-president of the Chinese-American Association of North Hempstead.
A newly formed Chinese Chorus will be singing traditional folk songs. There also will be a Chinese musical ensemble as well as acrobats and other dancers in a program still being finalized, according to Chan, who said she enjoyed last year’s festival.
“I always appreciate other country’s culture. When you understand other people’s culture, it’s much easier to communicate and put everything in the right place. This is a great event,” Chan said.
One new wrinkle this year is an attempt to secure sponsorships from local retailers, according to Chan, who said any funds left over from the event will be pledged for relief to the victims of the recent Japanese earthquakes.
In addition to support from the Town of Hempstead, this year’s festival will be co-sponsored by the Americana Manhasset shopping mall, according to Town of North Hempstead spokesman Sidhartha Nathan.
The American Red Cross will have a presence at the festival site to collect contributions for that cause as well.
Chan has been involved in running the Chinese New Year observance at Herricks High School for the past 10 years, and sees a real value in such events for the younger people in the respective communities.
“We’re able to let the kids be educated by people from another culture and they can help carry their culture to other people. An event in the community where everybody gets to reconnect,” Chan said.
Chan, Nicky Goel, president of the Herricks Indo-US Community, and Min Sun Kim, president of the Korean Parents Association of Long Island, all expect more people to attend the festival than the 5,000 who came last year simply because more people know about it and word of mouth is expected to increase interest in the event.
Along with the Henna tattooing, the Indian Americans will present a fashion show organized by styles from different Indian states, a presentation of festival rituals from south India and “Bollywood” musical numbers will be part of the multi-cultural mix, Goel said. There will also be a demonstration booth on how to tie a sari, the traditional Indian garb.
“I think we as a community have become a melting pot,” Goel said. “And the festival is giving exposure to the countries and make everybody more aware,” Goel said.
Goel said she believes cultural similarities will become evident between the participating Asian groups as the festival presentations are determined.
“I think this is a wonderful event. This is a wonderful way to learn about other cultures,” Kim said. “We are all immigrants. So if we advocate for each others’ culture, then definitely we can make our community better.”
The Korean contribution to the festival will again include a Tai Kwan Do demonstration and music produced on the Tan Goo, a traditional Korean drum, according to Kim. And H Mart Supermarket is sponsoring a demonstration of how to make Kim Chee with different vegetables.
