\n\t\t\t\tRepresentatives of Yap shared their traditional attire and skills at the International Festival of Cultures on Sept. 13, 2014, on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. (MVA)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\u201cThe first night of the International Festival of Cultures was a good start, thanks to the solid crowd of first-time attendees who came out and the cooperation of Mother Nature,\u201d said MVA Community Projects manager Martin Duenas. \u201cAll the seats were filled at the stage, and participants had the opportunity to join some dances on stage, as well. Although similar to the Garapan Street Market and the Flame Tree Arts Festival, the International Festival of Cultures is unique in its full emphasis on culture. We encourage attendees to visit all the booths starting at Beach Road down Paseo to Coral Tree Avenue and take full advantage of this opportunity to learn about and enjoy the many cultures represented in our island home. Come out in your cultural attire this Saturday!\u201d <\/p>\n
Organized in conjunction with the Commonwealth Council for Arts & Culture and PDM Promoters, the festival will be staged for three additional Saturdays at Paseo de Marianas pedestrian mall in Garapan. <\/p>\n
The hourly entertainment lineup this Saturday will be Japan, Korea, and Bangladesh beginning at 6pm; Philippines, China, and Palau beginning at 7pm; Tahiti, Marquesas, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji beginning at 8:05pm; New Zealand and Chuuk beginning at 9:15pm; Kosrae and Northern Marianas Chamorro and Carolinian beginning at 9:55pm. <\/p>\n
Each night various cultural groups from the Pacific and Asia will showcase their heritage through performing arts, cuisine, and arts and crafts. Demonstration booths will include coconut-rope making, Chinese calligraphy, basket weaving, mwar-making (floral head lei), storyboard carving, origami paper folding, and more. <\/p>\n
In addition, a parade of cultures will be held on Oct. 4 at 5:30pm in Garapan from the Carolinian Affairs Office north along Beach Road to American Memorial Park, ending at Coral Tree Avenue. <\/p>\n
Booths open at 5pm. Performances begin at 6pm and the event will run until 11pm. Admission is free and open to the public. (MVA)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inaugural International Festival of Cultures organized by the Marianas Visitors Authority kicked off to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":179456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[268,160,165,466],"class_list":["post-179455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-american-memorial-park","tag-beach-road","tag-new-zealand","tag-tonga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}