2022 Multicultural Festival Moves To New Venue At Reston Town Center

RESTON, VA — After years of calling Lake Anne Plaza its home, the annual Reston Multicultural Festival is moving to Reston Town Center this year.

"We moved it to Reston Town Square Park, because we were unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion to discussions with LARCA (Lake Anne Condominium Association), and we located another venue for the event," said Leila Gordon, executive director of the Reston Community Center, which is the event's sponsor.

In April, RCC decided to move its Thursday night Take a Break concert series from Lake Anne Plaza to Reston Center after reaching a similar impasse with the LARCA Board.

Gordon said that the decision to move the Multicultural Festival was reached at the same time RCC was in discussions with LARCA over the Take a Break concerts.

"We didn't feel we needed to make an announcement then," she said. "We still were in the midst of trying to plan the lineup with our content partner, National Council for Traditional Arts. We wanted to wait until we had a lineup to announce, because we wanted the focus to be on the event content."

Related: Impasse With Lake Anne Board Forces RCC To Move Summer Concert Series

Patch reached out to the LARCA Board and its lawyer via email on Monday afternoon for comment, but no reply has been received. This story will be updated if Patch receives a response from the LARCA Board.

This year's Multicultural Festival, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Saturday, Sept. 17, will feature the works of master craft artists, as well as musical performances throughout the day.

RCC is expanding its 10-year-old partnership with the NCTA and bringing a slew of NEA National Heritage Fellows to perform. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the NEA fellowship program.

"RCC has been presenting the Reston Multicultural Festival for more than 20 years. This year’s special anniversaries offer us an opportunity to design a unique lineup and produce the event in a new setting,” said RCC Board of Governors Chair Bev Cosham, in a release.“We are delighted to partner with the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) to present the NEA Heritage Fellows, and with Reston Town Center Association (RTCA) to create a memorable day of celebrating the diversity of cultures that makes ours a great nation and Reston the special community we know it to be.”

Robert Goudie, executive director of the Reston Town Center Association, said RTCA was thrilled to partner with RCC to host this year's festival.

“Our longstanding partnership has generated outstanding performances and events for the entire community to enjoy," he said. "This year’s Multicultural Festival will continue and extend that terrific partnership. The Festival partners are also appreciative of the generous in-kind support provided by Boston Properties”.

The following descriptions of the NEA Heritage Fellows is taken verbatim from RCC's press release:

• Rahim AlHaj, Oud Player and Composer, 2015 NEA National Heritage Fellow Albuquerque, New Mexico: Rahim AlHaj is a performer and composer who combines a traditional Iraqi musical foundation with contemporary styling and influences.
• William Bell, Soul Singer and Songwriter, 2020 NEA National Heritage Fellow Atlanta, Georgia: William Bell is a rhythm and blues pioneer who was the first male solo act signed to Stax Records in Memphis. Bell played a pivotal role in ushering in the genre known as Southern soul music, which later resulted in the globally influential “Memphis Sound.”
• Jelon Vieira, Capoeira Master, 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellow, New York, New York: Born in Bahia, Brazil, Mestre Jelon Vieira has been at the forefront of promoting and presenting traditional capoeira through performing, teaching, and providing a wealth of expertise on Brazilian culture to scholars and historians.
• Billy McComiskey, Irish Button Accordionist, 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellow: Baltimore, Maryland: Billy McComiskey is a world-renowned accordion, or “box,” player and composer who won the Irish Echo’s Album of the Year award for his 2008 recording Outside the Box and was their 2011 Traditional Artist of the Year.
• The Cambodian American Heritage Troupe including: Chum Ngek, Cambodian Musician and Teacher, 2004 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Gaithersburg, Maryland: Master Chum Ngek is known for his performing ability on the roneat, a 21-keyed xylophone. Master Chum came to this country in the early 1980s among a wave of Cambodian refugees and has served as a musical and educational leader of his community ever since.
• Madame Sam-Oeun Tes, 1998 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Fort Washington, Maryland: Madame Tes was raised on the Cambodian Royal Palace grounds, and came to the U.S. in 1971. When the Khmer Rouge began their reign of terror, she was motivated to train young dancers in the Washington, D.C., area and has worked since the then to preserve the breathtakingly beautiful and ancient art from the Royal Cambodian Court.
• TahNibaa Naataanii, Navajo/Diné Textile Artist and Weaver, 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Shiprock, New Mexico: Naataanii weaves patterns that represent her individual creativity, beyond the regional patterns of European colonizers. She is also a rancher of heritage Navajo Churro sheep, vowing to devote her life to this sacred practice. For Naataanii, weavings are living beings, and sheep are life and ceremonially essential.
• Rich Smoker, Decoy Carver, 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellow, Marion Station, Maryland: Rich Smoker creates wildfowl decoy carvings out of his home workshop on the banks of the Big Annemessex River on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore.
• Treme Brass Band, New Orleans Brass Band, 2006 NEA National Heritage Fellow, New Orleans, Louisiana: Central to the musical traditions of New Orleans are the African American brass bands that play for traditional funerals and street parades. Among the most beloved of these is the Treme Brass Band from the venerable and storied Treme neighborhood The group is led by founder Benny Jones, Sr. who has been parading for nearly 60 years