RIDGEFIELD — Pawneet Sethi saw Saturday as an educational opportunity, as a way to help others learn about Sikh culture.
Judging by the number of Ridgefield-theme blue and orange turbans people were wearing in downtown Ridgefield on Saturday, Sethi and others from the Sikh gurdwara (temple) of Southwest Washington were quite the hit at the first Ridgefield Multicultural Festival.
“It’s about putting our story forward,” said Sethi, spokesman for the community. “It’s telling others our story, sharing our culture and our values with others.”
At their booth, Sethi and others talked about their community and showed off some of the “five K’s,” symbols of their faith.
“With religions there are a lot of questions about, we need to come out to more public forums like this,” Sethi said. “It’s like an educational campaign for us.”
The Sikh community was one represented 10-plus at the festival, which took place throughout downtown Ridgefield. There were performances and booths, including the Sikh gurdwara booth, in Overlook Park, genealogical research stations run by members of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members in the Ridgefield Community Library and cooking classes in the Ridgefield Community Center. Various flags were spread out on sidewalks, each one with some facts about that specific country and its relation to Washington. Scotland is roughly half the size of Washington, while Australia is about 41 times as large as Washington, according to the note cards.
Kids were given passports and had to visit each flag to figure out the answer to questions in their passports. Kids who filled out their passports could win a gift.
The idea for the entire event came from Megan Dudley, a Ridgefield resident who proposed it to city officials last year.
“It’s amazing, better than I even imagined,” Dudley said a few hours into the event Saturday. “The turnout is bigger. It’s just how I pictured it.”
Planning has been going on for at least nine months, according to Lee Knottnerus, Ridgefield’s deputy city manager. She added that Dudley came to the city with a vision for the event and ideas on performers and organizations to invite.
The event was part of the city’s First Saturday series, and the crowd could easily get to Ridgefield’s farmers market, which runs every Saturday from May until the first week of October.
“That way we had a built-in crowd of people who come to all our First Saturday events,” Knottnerus said. “We have vendors who participate, and businesses know what to expect.”
Some businesses participated in the festivities, leaving gifts and lettuce on stools out on stools. Around 10 a.m., a parade of Chinese lions, operated by the dancers of the Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team, traveled around downtown Ridgefield picking up the gifts and lettuce in return for blessing the businesses.
The Takohachi Japanese drum and dance team from Portland drew a big crowd in Overlook Park and had some kids in the crowd dancing along to their performance. Throughout the morning, there was a line of people waiting at the Sikh gurdwara booth where Manjit Singh and others were tying turbans on people. Members from the group also performed a dance onstage later in the afternoon.
Other performances included Master Oh’s tae kwan do, Hawaiian/Polynesian hula and dance by the Ke Kukui Foundation, Scarlet Sails Russian Theater Group and a Chinook closing ceremony. There were also cooking classes throughout the day where students could learn Filipino, Scandinavian, French and Nigerian dishes.
Dudley said she hopes the festival becomes a yearly event in the city.
“I’d love for this to turn into an annual event,” she said. “If the community supports it, hopefully the city will too.”
