A celebration of cultures, music, dancing, and international cuisines will take center stage Sunday, September 8, 2024, at the third annual One World Festival at Franklin & Marshall College.
The free event featuring ethnic food, art, performances, artisans, and goods from around the world will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the college’s Alumni Sports & Fitness Center at 929 Harrisburg Pike in Lancaster City. Food and beverages will be available for purchase.
Event organizers say the festival is a celebration of the cultural traditions that have helped make Lancaster County the vibrant and welcoming area it has become known for. This year’s theme is “Many Voices, One Song,” which is meant to recognize and encourage unity of the different communities that represent Lancaster County, according to the organizers.
“It goes back to the idea that Lancaster has become a melting pot,” said Deepa Balepur, owner of Manheim Township-based Compass Real Estate and the chair of the festival. “Now that we are nationally known as the refugee capital of world, we need to recognize people from other parts of the world.”
Balepur said the festival is an opportunity to learn about the people who make up Lancaster County, their food, beliefs, and traditions.
“Come out and get to know somebody who comes from a different part of the globe,” she said. “It benefits everyone.”
The idea of a One World Festival originated on Sept. 22, 2018, when leaders from the Hispanic, Asian Indian, and Africans were celebrating their cultures the same day in different locations around the county.
“One group reached out to the other two and eventually other local ethnic groups recognizing the opportunity to host a joint festival and the seed for the One World Festival was planted,” Balepur said.
The event has become an annual celebration with a planning group consisting of eight volunteers representing the Asian Indian, Greek, Latino/Hispanic, African, Irish, German, Italian and Jewish communities.
“We are trying to bring in more of the cultural communities that have arrived in Lancaster often as refugees, like the Bhutanese and Nepalese, and trying to make them feel more welcome, and to introduce the local community to different cultures to learn how to relate to each other,” organizing committee member Pete Byrne said.
The festival’s theme song, “When We Choose Love,” was written by Tom Daniels of the Lancaster Irish American Cultural Society and includes the verse, “Now our journey begins, as sister and brother, when we see ourselves in the eyes of each other.”
About 13 cultural communities will be represented at this year’s event, according to Byrne.
“I say that unless you are a direct descendant of one of the original groups in this country, you are an immigrant. We are all immigrants and the more we learn from other immigrants, the better our community will be,” Byrne said.
Lancaster County Community Foundation and Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health are co-presenting sponsors for the event.
More information is available at oneworldfestivallancaster.org/ or by emailing [email protected].