Evanston: Ethnic Arts Festival

Saturday & Sunday, noon to 7 p.m.

Dawes Park, Sheridan Rd. at Church St.

Free admission.

Evanston’s lakefront will be transformed into a Global
Village this weekend for the 28th annual Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival, a
two-day celebration of global diversity. This free event features visual art
from more than 100 countries, family crafts activities, international cuisine,
and live music, dance, and spoken word performances. Attendees experience the
colors, sounds, and aromas of world cultures -- they can learn a folk-dance
from a faraway country, and experience the intriguing spices and seasonings of
new ethnic foods.

The festivities kick off at noon Saturday with the Parade of
Nations, a flag ceremony led by longtime WLS-TV personality and festival MC
Bill Campbell. Community members place the flags of more than 200 countries
around the lagoon at Dawes Park, honoring the diversity of our planet.

This family-friendly event features a wide range of crafts
activities throughout the weekend, including origami and suminagashi workshops,
face-painting, mehndi body decoration of India, mask-making, maraca-making,
Mexican wrestling figures, and much, much more.

Attendees will enjoy continuous performances throughout the
weekend by Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (Central and West
African dance music), Isle of Klezbos (all-female klemzer band from NYC),
Matuto (Afro-Brazilian bluegrass), Kuumba Lynx (featuring 2013 Louder Than a
Bomb slam team champs), Las BomPleneras (all-female Puerto Rican bomba and
plena), Mexican Folkloric Dance Company, Bollywood Groove, Bilingual
Wiggleworms, and many others.

The Ethnic Arts Festival is sponsored by the City of
Evanston Cultural Arts Division and partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

For more information, call 847-448-8260.