Music pumped over a field crowded with vendors and booths at the Fourth Plain Multicultural Festival on Sunday, marking the Vancouver festival’s return after a brief hiatus.
Sunday’s festival at the Fort Vancouver High School Center for International Studies welcomed businesses and organizations owned by or that serve multicultural communities across the Fourth Plain corridor. Vancouver Parks and Recreation provided activities for children, while Bike Clark County ran a bike rodeo where children looped around cones on their bicycles.
Participants strummed guitars, led the crowd in a yoga class and performed martial arts demonstrations.
The festival represented a return to tradition for what once was a staple for Vancouver summers. The Fourth Plain Multicultural Festival used to be held annually at Warrior Field in the Harney Heights neighborhood, but Clark County Latino Youth Conference Founder Diana Avalos Leos said it dissolved after the site was set aside for the new Vancouver Fire Department Station 2.
This year, however, a number of community organizations worked to return the festival to the community, she said, calling the event a “true partnership and collaboration” between partners, including the city, Clark County Public Health, Southwest Washington League of United Latin American Citizens and Kaiser Permanente.
“We’ve all lifted together to make this happen,” Avalos Leos said.
Lindsey Luis, a 16-year-old junior at Fort Vancouver High School, was a volunteer at the festival. Luis is also involved with LULAC.
Luis appreciates that the festival brings together a variety of cultures and people of different backgrounds.
“We need to get all these cultures to build a bond,” she said. “What other events do that?”
Stephanie Turk and her five children flopped on the grass at the festival, taking a break from the festivities.
Turk’s 3-year-old son, Robert, let out an eager “Ooh!” as an upbeat song began to play, stamping his feet and clapping his hands in a cheerful dance.
Her 4-year-old daughter, Julie, snacked on mangos from a nearby food vendor as she announced that “eating” was her favorite part of the festival.
“It’s good to see the community,” Turk said.
