Many cultures, one festival: Elgin's iFest

Elgin's International Festival, now in its fourth year, is the result of the city deciding to combine a number of smaller ethnic festivals.

Previously, the city co-sponsored the majority of such events, but found funding was straining the city's budget.

"So instead of having all of these one-off cultural events, we decided to take all of that and fund one event: International Fest," said Barb Keselica, special events and communications manager for the city of Elgin. "We celebrated all of the cultures and we focused all of our funding and resources to that."

The festival takes place 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, on the Riverside Drive Promenade.

"We have five different regions: North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia and Middle East, and Europe," Keselica said. "Each region has chairs or co-chairs and they are responsible to go out and get 10 booth representations of countries within their region, four food vendors and three entertainment acts."

In terms of entertainment, she said, "we have everything from belly dancing to bagpipes. Anything that would showcase their region to the best of their ability."

The city is working with Elgin Area School District U-46 to encourage local students, grades three through eight, to come downtown and explore the rich culture of the area.

"They will be able get a passport and each region will have a question that they'll need to answer and at the end of all the regions they'll have the opportunity to drop off the passport," Keselica explained. "The school that has the most passports represented will get a free movie night."

"We hope that really helps us, not only with our marketing, but the point of the event is to showcase our diversity, celebrate it and educate people on the cultures we have," Keselica said.

The city has used gnomes to advertise the festival, leaving them around town for locals to discover. Local artist John LaFleur organized a project using both the gnome and the heritage themes to benefit PADS of Elgin.

He first considered the idea as he walked his son through Elgin to attend art class at Side Street Studios.

"We pass a lot of homeless people and I explained to him these people don't have a place to live and I explained that's why I'm doing this project," LaFleur said. "I raised him to know how the arts can give back to the community."

LaFleur, who has worked on many art-based projects for Elgin, reached out to fellow artists, asking them to participate by turning gnomes into original art representing the heritage of the artists.

"Some people did; we have some Viking gnomes and some Italian gnomes, some Irish gnomes," he said. "Some people said they didn't identify with their heritage, so they did whatever. It's really a statement about, does your heritage influence you or not.

"One artist is decorated his as Captain America. The artist said his family had been here so long that he didn't identify with their heritage."

The gnomes will sell for $25 at the festival and will be on display at Rediscover Records, (9 S. Spring St. in Elgin).

"What's really important in terms of getting your hands on them would be, first come, first sold. Our goal's pretty simple; if we sell them all we'll raise $750 for PADS," LaFleur said.

As with most festivals, turnout is dependent on the weather, which has worked against the festival more than once, including last year's event.

"We had a really good crowd, but we had a storm come up about an hour and a half into it. So we're really hoping that the weather cooperates," Keselica said.

Whether attendees gather for the food, the entertainment, to celebrate their individual heritage or learn about one another, Keselica hopes people take away the idea that Elgin is all the better for its mix of backgrounds.

"We're just rich in culture and we're lucky to have that," Keselica said. "It's not something we might necessarily find in the surrounding suburbs."

Festival admission is free. For details, visit elginifest.org/.

If you go

What: Elgin International Festival, or iFest

When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29

Where: Riverside Drive Promenade, Elgin

Admission: Free

Details: <a href="http://elginifest.org">elginifest.org</a>