Festival of Communities celebrates diversity with food, arts, entertainment

Say what you will about Southern Nevadans, but, boy, do we love a good party.

And if the party in question just happens to include food and entertainment with an international flavor, so much the better.

These two eternal truths of Las Vegas life probably help to explain why the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Festival of Communities has become such a popular event over the past half-dozen or so years.

This year's edition of the festival is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday along UNLV's academic mall, which spans the Maryland Parkway side of the campus from the student union toward Ham Hall.

Randy McCrillis, director of UNLV's Office of Civic Engagement and Diversity, said the event was created to celebrate the valley's rich cultural diversity.

The festival primarily began as a student-oriented event. But, in recent years, the festival was refashioned into more of a community outreach celebration.

McCrillis said the goal is to "bring together the community to highlight cultural diversity within the UNLV campus and within Southern Nevada."

Featured will be a variety of crafts and arts booths, musical performances and food and drink vendors.

This year's festival will include more than 150 booths, McCrillis said, versus last year's 100 or so and about 50 during the event's early years.

Those early years also saw "a couple of thousand folks" attend, McCrillis says. Last year, the festival hosted more than 7,000 guests.

Another expansion this year will be the placing of an additional stage near Ham Hall. The other stage will remain near the alumni amphitheater.

McCrillis said about 20 arts groups are scheduled to perform at those two venues throughout the day.

This year's festival will include an undergraduate academic symposium, exhibits and programs about green living, and a farmer's market.

Also, a special kid's zone will entertain children via face painting, a petting zoo, a storybook house and other attractions.

In a slightly more offbeat direction, UNLV architecture students will try to set a world's record by building a fort out of 25,000 cardboard boxes, McCrillis said.

The Festival of Communities serves as a fundraiser for several student organizations which will, for example, man the fair's food booths, McCrillis said. "For some of our student organizations, it's their largest fundraiser."

The day's activities also will include shows by student dancers, musicians and performers "representing their cultural heritage or something unique abut themselves," McCrillis said.

Parking will be available at the Thomas & Mack Center parking garage at East Tropicana Avenue and Wilbur Street, and the Cottage Grove parking garage at Maryland Parkway and Cottage Grove Avenue.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.