By Allen Duncan
If you were bored April 2, you should’ve been at the International Festival. A block of Broughton Street was turned into a cross-continental smorgasbord of food and festivities. Throngs of SCAD students, Savannah locals and trolley-bound tourists crowded the block between Abercorn and Lincoln to see the diverse vignettes of authentic cultures. Booths lined up along both sides of the street offering ethnic foods and wares.
The 13th annual International Festival was held as a celebration of the diversity of SCAD’s student body and lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It allowed an opportunity for student organizations and small local businesses to raise funds. Food and crafts all went for reasonable prices, even for a student’s budget. The stage offered acts like Grupo Kachimbos de Savannah, Mystik NRG and DJ Omar Richardson. Local restaurants like Carlito’s Mexican Restaurant and Casbah Moroccan Restaurant participated by selling food.
If you walked up Martin Luther King and down Broughton, the first thing you saw was SCAD’s classic double-decker bus parked broadside, which headed off the block party. To pass under the wind-flailing flags of every nation imaginable, you had to squeeze through the gaps in the friendly mob. Moving further west, guests passed the booths of different restaurants, student clubs and organizations. If the passing guest followed his ears farther east down Broughton, he found intoxicating drums and dance on a stage that sat at the end of the block.
Even lurking around the double-decker bus and the library, one could hear the exotic beats of the bands that took turns on stage. It was hard to help walking past Leopold’s Ice Cream and Trustees Theater to get deeper into the mass. Booths labeled with monikers like “Africa,” “Metal and Jewelry Student Association” or “Taste of India” offered an overview of the given group’s interests. Guests were invited to walk up to any table they liked to buy the offered goods or food and talk to the owner/operators or students. The only booth that really pushed the hard sell was the Ruan Thai food booth that had a girl, dressed ostensibly in traditional garb, shouting the merits and $5 price of the good eats. The Japanese student club hosted different ways to show support for the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
The festival may not have been enough to occupy the average child of the new millennium for its 4-hour duration, but it was more than enough to keep a guest occupied for a couple hours, and definitely worth the trip from any corner of Savannah. The food and fun of mingling with the diverse population of students and people of Savannah made any intra-city travel more than worth the effort.
