Festival ofNations to be held virtually today
CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. » The 49th annual Festival of Nations, a longtime Capital Region tradition, will be held virtually this year.
The event, which typically draws about 3,000 people to the Empire State Plaza in Albany each fall, is instead set to take place online.
The free, virtual festivities will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8 via Zoom, YouTube and Facebook Live.
The program, representing more than a dozen countries, will include videos of native entertainment, cooking demonstrations and recipes and the annual Miss Festival of Nations Contest.
For nearly a half-century, this festival has provided a platform for the ethnic groups of the Capital Region to share their ethnic identity.
The event began in 1972 in Troy as an art and cultural festival at Hudson Valley Community College, then quickly grew into a larger venue at the nearby
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Houston Field House, before finally moving to the Empire State Plaza Convention Center when it was built in 1978.
Before the inaugural Festival of Nations, “We didn’t have any such thing in the Capital District,” event chairman Manoj Ajmera said on why the event was created.
Ajmera has been involved with the festival since its inception, and is in his 34th year as the event chairman.
In recent years, the festival has included represen
tatives from more than 30 different countries around the globe.
Typically, these groups present performances, cuisine and goods from their nations at the event.
For 2020, all presentations will be virtual, but the festival’s purpose remains the same: to prove how well people with diverse backgrounds can work together and have lots of fun doing it, to present a glimpse of the world to the residents of the Capital District and to get children involved so that they can appreciate their heritage with their parents.
Though planning any event is challenging this year, organizers wanted to continue the Festival of Nations in 2020 so that next year attendees can celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The goal of this year’s festival, Ajmera said, is “to continue to interact with the diversity of the Capital District and keep in touch with different cultures.”
He continued, “America is getting more and more diverse, so something like this also brings people together from different backgrounds and different cultures, and is a chance to appreciate other people’s culture and showcase their own.”
One advantage of holding the event virtually is that anyone from around the world, including the family members of participants, can enjoy the festival from afar.
Looking ahead, festival leaders are hopeful that 2021 will provide the opportunity for a grand celebration as the Festival of Nations marks its 50th year.
More information about the Festival of Nations, including details on how to access the upcoming virtual event, is available online at www.festivalofnations.net.
For those attending via Zoom, the Meeting ID is 890 3838 7731 and the passcode is 811650.
YouTube videos will be posted at https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCxNecmBtJtmOCrn1dY9XMQg.
The Festival of Nations Facebook page can be found online at www.facebook.com/FONAlbanyNY.