2nd Annual County Cultural Festival to be Held Oct. 13

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by the Mercer County administration.

Mercer County’s 13 municipalities are home to citizens of a variety of ethnicities and countries of origin, and in celebration of this, County Executive Brian M. Hughes and the Board of Chosen Freeholders will present the second annual Cultural Festival on Saturday, Oct. 13, in Mercer County Park in West Windsor.

The festival, to be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., will celebrate diverse cultures through live traditional dance and musical performances; foods from around the world, including Polish, Thai, Italian, Caribbean and American fare, and international beverages and desserts; craft vendors representing Native American, Mexican, Tanzanian, Guatemalan, gypsy and other cultures; art demonstrations and a variety of activities for children.

Dance performers will include Tchaka Fro Dance (Haitian), Prerna School of Indian Dance, Terpsichorian Greek Dancers, Unizi African Drums and Dance, Groove Merchant Drum and Dance Ensemble (traditional Turkish and Egyptian belly dance), and Csurdongolo Hungarian Folk Dance.

The musical lineup will include Philadelphia Mandolin and Guitar Ensemble (traditional Italian), NogBhoys (Irish), Sabrosongo with Arturo Romay (Venezuelan gaita), Odessa Klezmer Band (traditional Jewish, Romanian, gypsy), Son 7 (Puerto Rican), Spook Handy (emcee for the event and traditional American folk) and Chin Yun Chorus (traditional Chinese choral).

Traditional art demonstrations will include Egyptian icon painting (Wasef Matias), Chinese brush painting (Wen Shui), German paper cutting (Debbie Gwarzda) West African sculpting (J.C. Sarpong), blacksmithing (Daniel Lapidow) and Guatemalan weaving (Servin Sosa and friends).

Admission and parking are free.

In case of rain, the event will be rescheduled to the following day, Oct. 14. For more information, or if you are interested in being a vendor, please call the Mercer County Division of Culture and Heritage at (609) 278-2712 or e-mail culturalfestival@mercercounty.org.