Elgin iFest planning wrapping up with one month to go
Downtown Elgin will take on the flavor of a Brazilian Carnival Sept. 1 as the International Festival kickoff parade travels east on Chicago Street and south on Spring Street to the inaugural event at Festival Park.
Aloun Khotisene runs the Southeast Asian youth programs at the Elgin YWCA and volunteered as chairman of the parade planning committee for the festival. He said the goal is to have Elgin’s diversity reflected in the parade with cultural groups performing along the relatively short route, dancing and blaring traditional music along the way.
“Since we are a diverse community it would be cool to have all the different communities and different countries represented in the parade,” Khotisene said.
So far Elgin Community College’s United Students of All Cultures group is helping organize with confirmed participation from the Lao, Mexican, African American, Puerto Rican, Irish, Venezuelan, Colombian and Scottish communities. Mariachi bands from two local middle schools will play as well as a couple of high school marching bands.
Once the parade enters Festival Park, food vendors, exhibitors and performers will continue representing their respective cultures. Projecto7, a salsa and Latino jazz band from Elgin, will be one of the musical headliners with performances planned by the Bartlett International Chorus, ECC’s Ballet Folklorico Huehuecoyotl, Eastern Groove Studio and AKF Martial Arts Dragon Kyukido.
Kids activities will be dedicated to learning about diverse cultures with international crafts, instruments and clothing for play, international games and relay races and special performances geared toward children.
Rose Reinert, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, said her organization has been working with the Gail Borden Public Library’s summer reading program, highlighting the Children Just Like Me! exhibit, which features kids from around the world.
“The Kidz Zone is the bookend to a lot of summer activities that encourage reading and learning about different cultures,” Reinert said.
Danise Habun, chairman of the city’s Human Relations Commission and festival planning committee, said Elgin iFest has come a long way since people started working on it more than six months ago.
“Our planning committee represents every layer of community that is Elgin,” Habun said. “We are as diverse as the community is and that truly is the most exciting part of this.”
With a month left for final touches, organizers are looking toward the last of the parade participant and exhibitor applications as well as volunteer signups to round out the planning. Visit elginifest.com to get involved.