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For the last 10 years, the city of Jackson has been celebrating the diverse backgrounds of residents throughout West Tennessee.

Hello, I'm Julie Cook.

On this edition of Tennessee is Talking, the topic is the Jackson International Food and Art Festival.

Born of a series of community meetings in 2013, the festival's goal is for Jackson's foreign-born citizens to share their history, art, and culture with their fellow Jacksonians.

Let the conversation begin.

That's so cool.

Then that's when I said that-- The problem with that idea is-- Wow.

That was amazing.

Then I came up with a solution.

[music] What was that about?

Here's what I think about it.

Now we're talking.

West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

Hello, I'm Julie Cook.

For the past 10 years, the Jackson International Food and Arts Festival has been spreading cultural awareness, promoting cross-cultural engagement, and celebrating the diverse backgrounds of Jackson residents.

Here to tell us about the event are executive co-chairs Eduardo Morales and Dr. Sandra Dee.

Thanks for joining us.

This year, the festival is extending two hours.

There's a very special event at the end of the day.

One of you would like to tell us about that.

Yes, because this is our 10th year anniversary, we wanted to thank the community for supporting us all these years.

We're going to have a special concert by an ABBA tribute band called ABBAFAB.

You should party as if it's 1979.

[laughter] We can do that, I think.

I know.

I know.

For those who aren't familiar, and I've talked to you all for several times over the past years and just the story of how the festival got started.

I know there were just a small group of you, and now it's grown, and the festival started downtown.

Now, it's moved out to the Jackson Fairgrounds, and it really has grown.

It's been a very collaborative effort from the start.

Yes, I can tell a little bit about it.

when we started, we was invited to a committee at the City of Jackson.

That was a Season of Unity Committee.

From there, we came to this idea, saying, "Why don't we do something a little bit bigger than just having the meetings?"

We get together, and then we decided that, "Let's do a festival," a multicultural festival where we can invite all the diversity of cultures around the area, It's how we started.

The first year, it was very interesting because we didn't know what to expect.

-A trial and error.

-That's right.

We performed ourselves because we might not going to have enough performance.

We don't know if people is going to race straight to be a vendors.

We don't know if people is going to show up.

It was very skeptical.

We did have 2,000 people, I think, at the very first year.

It was success.

We was excited.

We was happy.

It's how we started.

Now, we are on the 10th.

To add to what Eduardo has mentioned, we were invited to be part of the Citizens Commission of Unity.

In fact, that was actually started by the previous mayor in order for us to think how to make Jackson a better place to live.

That's what he said, doing an international festival where in we celebrate the diversity of what we have here in our city.

We connect with different people, different cultures.

By doing so, once we understand and know more about these different cultures, we begin to promote unity.

Because with this, it enables us.

To share our history, our traditions, our culture.

It's actually promoting cultural awareness or cultural sensitivities, how you would say it these days.

Unity.

Right.

I think that's, I don't know if most people are probably .. of the number of different cultures that there are right here in West Tennessee.

-Yes, that was one of the interesting questions.

People start asking like, "How many cultures do we have around us in Jackson?"

There was one time when Mayor Gist, he say there was something like 130 something, I'm not very sure exactly, around West Tennessee.

135 or something.

It could be.

We are not really sure.

In the festival directly, either performance, food, or just visiting, we probably have every year about 70 to 80 different cultures.

The parade because that's a big draw.

The parade, food venders, performers or just come and visit.

Because there's always a great turnout for the parade.

Now, are they primarily in West Tennessee?

Yes, for the most part.

The grand parade of cultures?

Yes.

That's early.. which is September 21st.

We'll be definitely looking forward to that.

I just wonder how you get in contact with all the different representatives of the cultures.

We've been making these connections.

When we see somebody from different country, different culture, we typically invite them.

I say, "Oh, we have a new visitor, a new resident in Jackson," but we don't have it in the festival yet.

Then we just mention it at the festival.

It's how we start inviting more people, new people.

Even some of the people, some of them, they didn't participate in the past.

We try to get in touch with them, either through churches, or school, or just on the street, or the city, or asking friends.

Say, "Hey, if you have a friend, who never participated in the festival and they would like to represent their culture in the festival, tell them about us."

It's how we can start it.

We try to connect to the different people or different cultures mainly by attending different events as well that we have here in the city.

That's the way to start it, too.

What he mentioned, maybe some friends, some neighbors, people that you don't really know.

When you attend these events, then you'll find out, "Hey, this is somebody from a different culture.

Why don't you come and join us?"

It's really a year-long search, if I may say so.

It's not just a one-day event.

I know it's previously a six-hour, now going to be an eight..

The work that goes into making this-.

-A lot of planning.

--festival is a lot of planning.

I'd like to thank, of course, all our dedicated volunteers because this is mainly run by volunteers, and, of course, in partnership with the city of Jackson and different corporations and businesses that support us, and, of course, media personality like you.

It helps us with the promotion.

people will know about it, and then they would like to participate the next time.

It's been very intriguing from the start and so wonderful to just watch it grow and grow because I would venture to say it's probably the largest gathering of people in Jackson at one time.

Now that it's moved out to the Fairgrounds, and I'm sure you are still getting asked why it moved, but it just outgrew the downtown area.

-Right.

-As simple as that.

The capacity, it was too much.

It was a lot.

The center of downtown, it wasn't big enough for us to do all these in those little place there.

I want to mention something for people who's looking at us right now, we are talking about the International Food and Art Festival here in Jackson, Tennessee, which is going to take place September 21st from 10 AM to 6 PM at the Fairgrounds-.

-[crosstalk] --come and visit us.

If somebody wants still to be a part of the parade of cultures, they still can register it, and they are welcome.

We have the flags.

They don't have to buy the flag themselves.

They just register it and get ready, and they can be a part of it.

In the parade, I know sometimes there are only four or five people.

Sometimes there are four.

Sometimes there are 10.

Sometimes there are 20.

Correct.

It depends on ho..

Some groups, there are 100, close to 200.

Yes, it looks beautiful.

Even if it's one, they feel so proud.

We've been having some cultures that is just one person, but he feels so proud to walk with his flag and feel free to do it.

I think she can mention about what's the very symbolic part of it.

Yes, like what he is saying, too, it may be just 1 person or 100 people, but for you to be proud and be able to walk with your flag and hand it over to our mayors is a very symbolic gesture of a welcoming city, a welcoming place where people are accepted no matter what color, what language, what religion you have, you are accepted here in West Tennessee.

That's what we want.

Because neither .. No, I've been in Jackson for 18 years.

I've been in the United States almost 30.

Half of my life really is here.

I've always considered Jackson home just like where we are here.

You are from the Philippines?

I am from the Philippines originally.

I'm half Filipino and half Chinese.

I belong to really those two cultures.

Now, why is it important to you then that just the whole blending of the cultures, what would you like to bring?

Yes, for me, I think once we know, once we realize the importance of other people, knowing their traditions, their culture, actually we understand them more.

They become your friends.

They're not just your neighbor but friends.

That's just how it started.

We didn't know each other.

The members of the committee didn't even know one another.

Through the festival, we developed long-lasting friendships.

Because a lot of people can't really imagine going to another country, whether to study, or a lot of people are alone, or some people come with their families.

Exactly.

That way, people who come fr.. sometimes they feel alone.

Even though they are in between people, they have neighbors around them, they still feel alone.

In this way, they feel welcoming.

We know each other.

We share my culture, his culture and respect.

That's the thing.

We don't, how do you say, appoint like, "Oh, how funny you dress," or at least like that.

No, we respect each other.

It's part of his culture.

His traditions.

Because just in talking to someone from another country, you were sharing a story with me, because I know you were heading home or something, and I think something about your traditional funeral.

Was something you were telling me-.

-Before?

--a few months back.

Yes.

Just different things like that are done in..

Celebrating weddings or celebrating the-- -[?].

-That's what I was trying to think.

[laughter] Yes.

That's what I was thi..

Celebrating Christmas.

I came from the Philippines.

Christmas is the country that has the longest Christ.. We start in the month of ber, September till January 1st.

-The first ber.

-The first ber.

It's really, in a few days, there'll be Christmas carols, and Christmas trees, and everything, Christmas songs-.

-How about that?

--in the Philippines.

I'm proud of that.

That's something you learn from my culture.

That's something different.

Of course, I know we see all those decorations now in the different stores, but in the Philippines, that's really pretty much standard.

Because I want to mention some of the children's events.

There are activities for children as well.

I think there's a lot more awareness of different cultures and diversity and starting when they're smaller, probably, to bring that awareness.

What are some of the children's activities?

Yes, I'd like to mention, too, of course, when we started, to go back a little bit, that we didn't really have a lot of children's activity in the very beginning.

We had that little spot there in the fox s.. That was the little children's corner then when we started, but it grew now to them being in the exhibit hall, the air-conditioned portion of the Fairgrounds.

This year, our focus is on literacy, actually.

The theme is creativity across cultures, the story of you.

That is the theme for the children's area.

Of course, we have different things going on.

We have a children's campground with a fake fire, of course.

We'll have pop tents.

We will have people reading to the children, hopefully, in different languages.

We will have the Wild Wagon.

We also have a partnership with Leaders Credit Union for this.

The library, Friends of the Library.

We have all our different artists there doing creative activities with the kids.

This has grown to be one little corner in the fox slot to a whole building, mainly devoted to the children.

If you have kids, make sure you come, and this is free.

We have to mention that everything is free, other than, of course, if you want to buy things.

Yes.

People don't have to pay to be part of the festival, to came and participate.

They don't have to pay.

Everybody's welcome, kids, any sex, like she said, [crosstalk] cultures.

There's not a lot of free things that you can take kids.

Take them to the park and take them to a few.

I think it's just such a day, the music and the dance.

Of course, we've always worked the stage, and I want to talk about the entertainment, too.

Because there's just so much flavor and just the scents and the colors and the costumes and just the mixture.

I thought the entertainment throughout the day was just wonderful last year.

It was so captivating.

Yes, every year we try to make it bigger and better.. For this year, since it's a special year, it's the 10th anniversary, we already mentioned that the finale will be a 90 minute show by an ABBA tribute band.

Throughout the day, starting at ten o'clock till about four o'clock, we have different performances of other cultures as well, local talents and professional performers.

We'll have performances by Lee's Golden Lion and Dragon Group from Houston.

That's always the highlight, yes.

They'll be coming from Houston.

In fact, this group is 50 years old.

They just celebrated their 50th anniversary, and they are fantastic performers.

They have performed for the Houston Rockets, performed for Disney, so that's fantastic.

The dragon is probably about, what, 30 feet?

How long would you say it is?

I don't know in terms of feet, but it's 20 people just to do the dragon, and then we'll have the lion.

[crosstalk] There will be, instead of one lion made up of two people, of course, probably seven or eight different ones.

They will be performing throughout the day, so people should not miss that.

We also have the Aztec performers from Nashville and folkloric group from Nashville performing Mexican traditional folk dances.

Of course, I'd like to mention, too, we have several talented performers in the city.

We have our cultural groups from India, from the Philippines, from Mexico.

You have the Irish dancers.

[crosstalk] -Yes, we'll have the Nigerian group.

That's something for everybody.

You mentioned earlier, Julie, that, "Why is this important?"

I think the festival is a platform, really, for the international community to share their culture and history and be a voice for the community as well.

I know it's just one day, eight hours, but that's one special day, you give pride to your country and you give pride to your community, and you meet more friends.

You have even more, a lot of people.

Like I said, it's obviously grown in leaps and bounds every year, so there is something captivating these audiences that just come and keep coming and come every year, and so many new ones come every year as well.

I used to go to Memphis or Nashville to the Brazilian festival, Italian festival.

They have individual.

Specific, individual.

festivals.

Now, we have it here, and this is all of them together.

This is an opportunity in Jackson.

Is there any way to tell people from out of town?

How many draw from out of town?

I guess there's not really.

It's hard to tell, but we know that w.. and Alabama, and Mississippi.

We also want to mention that on this next coming weeks, we're going to keep telling the people how the people is going to get in there because it's going to be crowded.

I wanted to talk about that.

It's going to be crowded.

I know last year when I went out, I can't even turn left anywhere because I think it was backed up from the Fairgrounds almost to Court Square.

[crosstalk] Our police department, they're going to help us a lot this year.

How we're going to direct the traffic, we're going to put maps on our Facebook and how people can get in there, but we're going to have some buses from the city.

She will explain a little bit more details on that, but people can park at the city at the Civic Center.

From there, every 15 minutes, the bus is-.

-There'll be shuttle running.

--going to pick people.

Yes.

Can you tell them a little bit?

Yes.

That will be done this year.

Because last year we were not able to really have that implemented because of the traffic.

It was a problem you didn't know you were going to have.

-You're right.

-We didn't know.

This one day, we will start doing that about 9:45.

The shuttle service will start till the end of the festival, actually.

It's throughout the day.

That's one good thing to know.

You can go to the Civic Center and park-.

-Civic Center and park.

--and catch a shuttle down to the-.

-To the Fairgrounds.

--Fairgrounds.

If they decided to make it easy and not to make a long time to get in there, they can do that.

That's an option, optional.

We also wanted to mention, since we are on the air, for all our vendors, we really recommend them and require them to come and set up on Friday, the day before.

We're going to have their space ready for each individual vendor.

That way, they can set up all their stuff from the day before.

That way, they don't have to do it-.

In the morning.

in the morning on Saturday beca.. How many booths?

I guess when you say booth vendor-- A booth vendor, it's probably over 100, last year where you had almost 140.

We are reaching that capacity already.

I looked at our list, but of course, we are reviewing all the vendors that applied.

As what he mentioned, the suggestion is to come and start setting up a little bit on Friday so that you don't have to put-- maybe not your food on Friday, but bring everything else on Saturday.

Setting up your tent maybe on Friday might be a good thing.

We have that capability, we'll let them do that this time.

That is wonderful.

I'm just so excited about it.

Like I said, of course, I love the entertainment part of it, seeing all the music and just the dances and things like that.

Now, I should know that you all have a Facebook page, the Jackson International Food and Arts Festival.

It's under that.

Webpage.

If you just Google that, it'l..

Yes.

We also have a webpage www.ji.. and we have an Instagram, 731 JIFAF.

All the information will be there.

We've been updating all that.

If there's anything like the program, the map all those details, we're really two, three weeks, or we are three weeks away.

We'll have that once we have finalized all that.

It will be all on those different platforms.

After, on Sunday, you'll go and take a nap-.

-Yes.

--or take a vacation.

[crosstalk] Go back to the hospital.

Just to remind that we're going to have two stages.

One especially for kids.

Yes.

I forgot to mention that one.

One for the professional and adults, the performance outside.

That is new.

We did that last year, too.

We did have it last year.

Because we was talking about the stage for kids and stuff.

That's actually one stage, but then we have the big one outside where we're going to have the [?]

-It's under the grandstand.

-The grandstand.

People can sit comfortably and quite shaded.

Everybody can be able to see it.

I want to mention something that we would like to thank to all the people who's been a part of this festival, sponsors like you, the people who help us as MCs, the people who come to take a video, people who participate helping us, the volunteers, the executive community, general community, police department, sheriff department.

It takes a village.

We would like to thank all the people because this..

This team, what we do here is we make something really good for Jackson to show our [crosstalk].

We've got a couple of minutes or there's some sponsors that you need to mention because I know it takes a good deal of funding to put this all together.

Of course, we have to thank PBS, who's airing this.

Our partnership with PBS, we are very thankful because it's -.

We'll do a special program on the festival.

They did special programming.

We have a list of a lot of sponsors.

It's probably hard to enumerate all of them, but you could find them in our Facebook page as well as in our website.

We'd like to thank everybody that have been supporting us, especially the community as well.

We didn't have the list right now, at the moment.

-It probably is long.

-It's a very long list.

It's a long list.

It's very important to recognize people who do-.

Oh, definitely.

pour into the community for events.. Because like I said, I think this has to be the biggest event of the year in Jackson.

Do you estimate a crowd from last year?

Do you have an estimate?

The estimate last year was about 25,000 people-.

Really?

Throughout the day?

from the beginning comparing it to 2000 and 2014, it's 25,000 last year.

Of course, because of everybody's support, also to thank that the festival has been recognized as the heartbeat of Jackson.

We have won the award, the Heart and Soul Award of the Arts, and also the best local event last year.

We thank everybody for your continued support.

We are just about done.

It's been so wonderful talking to you both.

Like I said, I have many times, but I always love to hear new details about the festival, Eduardo Morales and Dr. Sandra Dee.

Thank you.

We'll be seeing each other real.. We are out of time for this edition of Tennessee is Talking, and we want to thank our guest, again, for being with us stopping by and telling us about the 10th annual Jackson International Food and Arts Festival.

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Until next time, keep talking, Tennessee.

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[music]