SOUTH BEND — Kelly Burgèt didn’t have to nudge the culture-hungry audience. Not much.
“It’s not what you can or cannot do,” she said, urging many dozens of people to stomp and swing with her local West African dance troupe, UZIMA!, as they stepped down from the stage to the blocked-off pavement of St. Louis Boulevard. “It’s about all of us coming together to celebrate each other.”
The crowd immediately joined the dance circle Saturday as global flavors filled Howard Park for the city’s new Fusion Fest.
Under the North America tent, an African American singer crooned the late Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” and people in the audience mouthed along.
The two-day fest debuted Saturday as large crowds mellowed out with music, crafts and food for each continent grouped under brilliant, fancifully patterned shade tents.
Ethnic and eager:Fusion Fest draws performers, mom-and-pop cooks, Ferris wheel and art
Food was a star. After all, this is a reincarnation of the beloved, food-centered Ethnic Festival that ran from 1974 to 2004.
John Pangani dished up jerk chicken, meat pies, plantains and other spicy goodness that, on his trailer, was labeled “Taste of Caribbean and Beyond.” But Pangani is a clever purveyor of his own culture. This cuisine blends flavors and styles from his native Malawi, a small southern African country, and the proceeds here all benefit primary schools and sanitation projects in Malawi through his Pangani Foundation.
Tamara Martin of South Bend was ordering some of it. As she recalled memories of the Ethnic Festival, she found a fondness for the new Fusion Fest. She liked the attention to safety, with metal detectors at the two entrances. She felt it’s more family friendly, too, because it seemed there was more room for kids and strollers and more places to rest and eat.
“South Bend is very diverse,” she reflected. “We’re all here to respect each other. This is a good way to do it. It’s important because we’re more accepting of cultures and ethnicities (than in the 1970s and 1980s). I feel like there’s no division here. People are talking with each other, no matter what race they are.”
“I’m impressed that there’s this much diversity in this small town,” Irais Ferreira said, having danced with her 5-year-old daughter, Mia, underneath the colorful big tent of South American cultures as the local Latin-soul fusion band Lalo Cura played on stage. “I want to show my children.”
Having just moved to South Bend two months ago, Ferreira came with her husband and three kids, ages 1 to 5, all wearing the colorfully embroidered shirts of their native Mexico.
Michelle Arias, 25, who came from Venezuela two years ago, emerged from paddling on the 20-seat dragon boat on the St. Joseph River — maybe her second time on any kind of boat — and said, “That was amazing.”
Now living in Elkhart, she laughed, saying she felt like she almost tipped (likely not on the big canoe) and got splashed. The boat, which the city of Fort Wayne has used to expose more people to its rivers, gives a new view of river life. Arias saw plants in the water and a bobbing apple (‘tis the season).
Tulin Sahin Babaoglu, of Mediterranean Michiana, drizzled an iridescent red-purple beet sauce over a sampler dish that she was serving.
Her husband, Serhan Babaoglu, said they are from Istanbul but now live in South Bend. They normally serve in local farmers’ markets. He praised the fest for being well organized, saying, “You can tell the organizers really care about the vendors and the people’s experience.”
“It’s colorful, it’s vibrant,” he said of the fest. “Everybody seems happy and open to trying new things.”
Grace Baker, 35, of South Bend had to try the Babaoglus’ food. She had made a couple of short visits to Istanbul when she’d studied in Europe during college.
“I just love the food, and anytime I’m around it, I want to try it,” she said of Mediterranean cuisine.
And because she works in restaurants, she added, “We need to support these places so they can have brick and mortar shops. We need people in numbers. Bring this energy.”
Jolene Coates of South Bend nibbled Saturday on warm plantains and shredded cabbage from the Caribbean. She relished the shade tents and breeze — something that the often-hot Ethnic Festival wasn’t known for, as she recalled — and liked Fusion Fest well enough to add, “I want to come back to Africa tomorrow.”
South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.
