API Fest Day celebrates Asian cultures

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Marvin Davis

On April 27 at the Library Quad, the Full Circle Project will be hosting Asian Pacific Islander American Fest Day, a celebration of various Asian cultures.

This will be the fourth time that the Fest Day has been done, and it will involve demonstration and events from multiple clubs such as the Cambodian Student Association and the Japanese Student Association. Sophomore electrical engineering major Andrew Yang said that one of the main points of the festival is to give people an introduction to different Asian cultures.

“We want to make our culture more recognized,” Yang said. “One of the main things about the festival is so people can be made more aware.”

The Fest Day will take place from 11 a.m. to 2p.m. At the beginning, student organizations will help expose people to the community and what each organization stands for.

“What they’ll do is that they will educate students who want to learn more about their culture,” said junior Asian-American studies major Angela Sarte. “After that, around 12:30 p.m., we’ll have a few cultural events as well.”

Some of the events include traditional dances as well as an enactment of a traditional Khmer wedding done at the end of the day. The wedding will be held by the Cambodian Student Association as a showcase of Cambodian culture.

“I’m hoping that through the API fest day event, we’ll be able to build a stronger sense of familiarity, what our culture and ethnicity stand for,” Sarte said. “People don’t really see who we really are, like we are a hidden culture, so I’m hoping we can bring education and a sense of diversity acknowledging who we are.”