Ridgefield residents and visitors were treated to a double helping of fun happenings Saturday with the return of the annual Ridgefield Multicultural Festival to Overlook Park. The Ridgefield Farmers Market was also held downtown Saturday.
The festival, back for its fifth year, was part of the city’s First Saturdays program, a monthly series of theme-related events and activities that feature local artists, food, live music and other pop-up activities.
“Our mission is celebrating cultures at home and across the world,” said organizer Megan Dudley.
“We look for people that are doing cultural activities first in Ridgefield then go outside of the city if we’re looking for certain types of events,” she added.
With this year’s theme being dance, several groups from Southwest Washington as well as Oregon were brought in to complete the roster. Dance performances, which rotated every 30 minutes, included festival favorites like the Titlakawan Aztec Dancers from Salem, Ore., Vancouver Ballet Folklorico, salsa with the Melao de Cuba orchestra, Hawaiian dance by Pa’akai Productions and Scottish dancing by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society’s Southwest Washington chapter.
Dudley said around 1,000 people came out for the first year of the festival, but she expected a bigger turnout this year.
“I think we’ll have more because other events in downtown Ridgefield have been bigger this year. I think people are starting to get over the fear of COVID-19 and get out and do things more,” she said.
The festival also featured artists and vendor booths selling food and goods. The Columbia Play Project hosted a “pop up in the park” event during the festival to give younger patrons a place for exploratory play.
Monika Deshpande has been teaching Bollywood dancing for over 15 years and now teaches from her Camas studio, Monalisa Art Institute. She and her dancers have performed at various events in Washington. Last year, she discovered the Ridgefield Multicultural Festival and asked if her group could be added to the lineup. After performing Saturday, she said she was glad she did.
“We really loved it. I loved the stage and the background. It’s beautiful,” Deshpande said.
Jessica Swanson of Ridgefield-based Luna Lynne Designs manned her booth while getting glimpses of the dancers on stage. Swanson takes old glass plates, bowls, servings plates, etc., and upcycles them into new art using alcohol inks. Swanson said she gets her ideas from how the glass is etched but also uses her imagination and creativity to come up with designs.
“I have a couple of things that are inspired by pride flags. I also get a lot of inspiration from video games, although the buyers may not realize what the inspiration was,” Swanson said.
Cecilia Billard of Ridgefield was one of the many locals who came to the festival early.
“We just moved here a year ago, and we kind of just fell upon this last year. We loved it so much we thought we would return,” she said.
Billard said she was especially excited to see all the different dance styles being performed.
“I love seeing the different cultures,” she said.
Ridgefield artist Marney Hefflin regularly participates in the First Saturday events and manned a booth for her business, The Flawsome Fig, during the festival. She also slipped out on occasion to watch the performances.
“I work full time in an office all day long, and on the weekends and evenings, I get to be creative. This is my creative outlet,” Hefflin said.
While she started by making rope bowls, she now does ice dyeing and Shibori — a Japanese dyeing technique using wooden blocks and tightly folded material to produce vivid patterns. Now she makes scarves, quilts and even tea towels.
“I find what I like and just do it,” she said.
The festival gave nonprofit groups and organizations a place to set up a booth and get information out in the public. Clark County Child Advocates, Northwest Gender Alliance and American Legion Post 44 set up along Pioneer Street. Possibly the youngest people in these groups were Ridgefield High School seniors Raquel Grabill Brown and Julieta Larios from Unite Ridgefield. The group is committed to embracing social and ethnic diversity.
Grabill Brown said feeling welcomed can be difficult for some students.
“We try to make a safe space for people to come and tell their stories. Then we try to problem solve,” she said.
“It’s spreading awareness because Ridgefield is not the most diverse community. … It’s teaching people the right way to be a friend to other people. It can be hard because, growing up, people may not be exposed to that,” Larios said. “This club is a starting point for that.”
For information on other First Saturdays events in Ridgefield, go to https://ridgefieldwa.us/things-to-do/community-events/first-saturdays.
