Photos and Story by Reana Gibson/Contributing Writer
On Saturday, October 19, the fourth annual ‘Boro International Festival was held at the historic Cannonsburgh Village in downtown Murfreesboro.
The festival is a multi-cultural event that is organized and hosted by Intercultural Awareness & Education Experience and sponsored by the Confucius Institute and MTSU International Affairs. It is free and open to the public.
“It’s basically an educational experience where we can get the community to come in and see different performances by different cultures and taste different cultural foods and have booths set up that showcase our artwork,” states Don Rhodes, one of the event organizers.
Performances from different groups such as the Bohemian Sisters and MTSU Carribean Student Association took the center stage along with a few live performances at the village entrance. Cultures represented this year included Chinese, Norwegian, Middle Eastern, South American, Native American and African.
Local businesses and international groups set up arts and crafts booths, informational booths about their culture or wares and even had some stories to share. A children’s area supplied different activities from around the world for kids. The Murfreesboro City Schools mobile library was also present at the festival, offering books for kids and adults alike. Additionally, food trucks offered Asian, Mexican, Filipino and American cuisine for the attendees and participants. The Japanese Department and La Comunidad returned this year with booths.
“Last year was our first year here,” one of the members of Ñawpa, a returning group from Ecuador, commented. “I really liked it and I liked that the booths are free and people can walk around and see a little of other cultures.”
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