Hastings Multicultural Festival celebrates 20 years of culture, food and dance

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) — Food, music and dance from around the world filled Kiewit Gymnasium on the Hastings College campus Sunday as the Hastings Multicultural Festival celebrated its 20th year.

The free, two-hour event invited people from across the community to share their heritage. Visitors sampled food, listened to music, got their faces painted, made masks and tried other hands-on activities. About 50 to 100 people attended.

“It’s an opportunity to bring together all of those in our community who are willing to share their backgrounds, what brought them to Hastings, and how they live and eat and celebrate and dance together,” said Alicia O’Donnell, executive director of the YWCA Adams County.

O’Donnell said planning starts in late July, when students return to Hastings College. The festival is a joint effort of the college, the YWCA and the Hastings Multicultural Association, with funding from the United Way.

Cultures represented included India, Sweden, the Czech Republic, El Salvador and Cuba, along with Indigenous American and African American traditions and many others. Hastings High School students involved in exchange programs also took part, along with a class sharing what it learned about Brazil.

“To see them come together and share and try and compare and contrast the similarities and the differences really is what I feel America is all about,” O’Donnell said.

The Hastings African American Awareness Committee took part for the first time in several years.

Jennifer Nicolarsen, a member of the committee who owns a salon in Hastings, said the group stepped back after some of its founding members died.

“We decided it was just time to get back together and really promote us within the community and get active back in the community again,” Nicolarsen said.

The committee brought food along with lessons on where those dishes come from. Nicolarsen said she hopes visitors leave with an appreciation for one another’s backgrounds, “because everybody’s a little bit of something somewhere.”

O’Donnell said giving the committee a platform to show it is “back and they’re ready to play a role in the community is really important.”

This year’s festival also fell on Diwali, the festival of lights. The holiday is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in India and around the world, often with oil lamps, fireworks, sweets and family gatherings. Its date changes each year because it follows the lunar calendar.

Dancer Sashmita Suresh said Diwali draws on Indian scriptures and epics tied to their gods and religion. Dancer Thoshiny Pallanala said communities celebrate it through different stories and traditions, but all share the same meaning: “the victory of light over darkness.”

Raaga Omaha traveled to Hastings on the holiday to perform music and dance from India.

“To have a group travel that far to share their culture with us is really an honor,” O’Donnell said.

Suresh said the group performed Bharatanatyam, a classical dance from South India considered one of the oldest and most difficult to learn. She said the dancers have trained for three to six years or more and completing the full course of study can take up to 12 years. Because the dance is rooted in religion, she said, performing it on Diwali felt connected.

“It connects directly to our traditions and ancient Indian culture,” Suresh said.

Dharun Raghavan, who played percussion with the group, said Diwali is one of the biggest events of the year in their tradition.

“Our whole family is built off of music,” Raghavan said.

O’Donnell said organizers hope to keep growing the festival in the years ahead.

“It’s a great celebration of fun foods, dancing and a community fellowship,” she said.

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