A photo from a past Festival of Nations celebration
This year’s Festival of Nations could not come at a busier time–for the last two weeks, the International Institute of St. Louis has worked not only on the grand finale to their festival season but on resettling approximately 1,000 Afghan refugees in the St. Louis area. Doing that, explains International Institute President and CEO Arrey Obenson, requires immense community support, which he hopes this weekend’s festival will create.
“The festival offers an opportunity for us to showcase what diversity really is,” Obenson says. “That in this community that we live in, we have a rich diversity of culture, and that only makes our experience of this community richer.”
Diversity, he says, is not only the existence of multiple cultures in a single space. That’s why this year’s theme is Bridging Cultures, Inspiring Action. St. Louis, while a very diverse city, has long been a segregated city, and the isolation that the pandemic has brought only furthered that separation.
“[It] is not enough to say that we are diverse, that we have people from all over the world or different cultures here,” Obenson says. “Diversity only becomes a strength when you can lean on that diversity to be able to grow as a community.”
The Festival of Nations is accomplishing exactly that. Since the beginning of this year’s festival season on June 20, the Institute has hosted nine Inclusion St. Louis talks, which were broadcast on Channel 11 and which are still available on the Festival’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The talks have reached, from TV broadcasts alone, over 30,000 households.
“This year, we’ve really been able to bridge the gap,” Obenson says. “…we’ve been able to reach thousands of people that we would not traditionally have reached, and that even if we reached, would probably not have gotten the messaging that we wanted to put out.”
The Inclusion St. Louis talks are a new part of this year’s festival. Prior to 2020, the Festival of Nations had filled Tower Grove Park with people shopping from craft stands and food trucks, and watching traditional performances on one of many stages. Last year, that couldn’t happen–in the space where in-person activities weren’t possible but people had not yet become used to online events, the festival struggled. This year, they have the best of both worlds.
Online programming like the talks and the livestream of the festival’s main stage will accompany a smaller-than-usual in-person festival in 9 Mile Garden. At any one time, there will be nine food trucks and various craft stations ringing a stage with performances showcasing St. Louis’s immigrant history.
“Every single week, we in this community receive immigrants who are here. So we want to create those opportunities for people to walk in those other shoes,” Obenson says. One opportunity? Watch them celebrate their heritage.
The performances run the gamut of St. Louis history, with dance and music performances from Eastern European groups starting the festival, followed by Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese performances before moving on to Bosnia, and, finally, a Bollywood grand finale to celebrate Indian immigrants.
Seeing this celebration might inspire festival attendees to help those currently immigrating to St. Louis, including those 1,000 Afghan refugees.
“It is good for the community that we are bringing in people to help build a more diverse, more inclusive, and more vibrant economy,” Obenson says, stressing that “our efforts are only as good, or our welcoming is only as good, as the community [that] stands with us.”
“Standing with us,” he explains, means supporting immigrant-owned businesses and restaurants. It means volunteering your time or money to help out those new to the region. And St. Louis has come through—the community has been very supportive of the International Institute and the immigrants it helps this festival season.
Obenson is grateful for that support, but stresses that “if you’re looking for action, this is the time for action, as we’re talking about Afghanistan and welcoming people to this community.” The festival’s grand finale is an opportunity to inspire even more St. Louisans to lend a helping hand.
This year’s Festival of Nations will take place 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Saturday, August 28, in 9 Mile Garden.
