Wyandotte County Ethnic Festival
Subtitle
Welcome to the Wyandotte County Ethnic Festival
A "Human Family Reunion"
to build our "Beloved Community"
and "Reclaim Our Common Humanity"
The 15th "Annual" Wyandotte County Ethnic Festival 2023
KCKCC Technical Education Center
Multi-Purpose Room
Saturday, April 15th from 11-5:30 P.M.
and Sunday April 16th from 12-5 P.M.
Kansas City Kansas Community College is supports the festival
for the first time at the Technical Education Center
6565 State Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas 66102,
and not in the Athletic Field House as we had been for 14 years.
We think you will enjoy the new venue!
We missed all of you in 2020, 2021, and 2022 due to COVID-19. In years before the pandemic we were averaging around 1,000 people in attendance. With this kind of community interest we hope to restart the tradition. This ethnic festival highlights the unique and rich cultural history of Wyandotte County. Come and learn about the traditions of the Wyandot and Delaware Nations, the Quindaro Underground Railroad, the Hispanic Community, the Strawberry Hill European culture, the Grinter House, and many other ethnic groups in our diverse county.
There will be eight ethnic food tables set up in the Technical Education Center lobby when you enter the building. There will be seating to eat in the multi-purpose room located a short distance from the lobby. Be looking for direction signs and people helping with directions. The multi-purpose room will have the entertainment stage and culture booths.
Room N118 behind the multi-purpose room will serve as the Creative Children's Area. This room can be accessed via the hallway that runs alongside the east side of the multi-purpose room. There will be signs and people helping with directions. There are restrooms at either end of that long hallway.
Entertainment groups will have the same sound system as before with audio engineers and microphones available through the KCKCC Sound Engineering program. Please supply your music on CD like before, or your phone, I-Pod, or I-Pad. If you have an I-Phone without a headphone jack you must supply the lightening to a 1/8" adapter. Besides the MC's microphone, there will be 3 microphones available onstage and 2 monitors. The sound will be heard through two front stand speakers. Clarence Small, our MC, will use a separate microphone that runs through the speakers in the ceiling of the multipurpose room.
Food and culture booths should arrive between 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to set up before the public enters at 11 a.m. Food vendors and culture booths should plan to stay until 5:30 p.m. We will have people to help bring in your supplies.
If you have registered for any facet of the festival in 2020, 2021, or 2022, you only need to email Curtis Smith at [email protected] to verify participation. For more information on when your group will perform click on entertainment located on this website, or call Curtis Smith at 913.549.0107.
Parking will be in the TEC Parking lot on 6565 State Avenue.
There will be plenty of space for 8 food vendors on Saturday,
and another 4 vendors on Sunday.
All food vendors will have access to electricity and close proximity to handwash basins.
All food vendors must be licensed and approved by WEF Inc. There will be food inspectors checking on temperatures and procedures prior the start of the festival.
The festival will take place rain or shine since it is indoors.
The festival is open to the public and will still have free entrance and free parking!
There will be a video screen in the Creative Childrens Area so that parents and children can watch the entertainment stage. Parents will have to stay with their children. The festival will also be live streamed on the KCKCC website. The Creative Children's Area will be supervised by KCKCC Art Curator Shai Perry. There will be plenty of activities for children including art, and henna face, or hand painting.
The WyCo Ethnic Festival recognizes Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of making connections with all members of our human family. The mission of the festival is to foster a climate of inclusiveness promoting relationships and contact among all people. We all tend to appreciate our own cultural traditions. This festival allows us to witness how others enjoy theirs especially in terms of dance, music and food. We all have this day to display and acknowledge MLK's "Beloved Community" and learn how to live more peacefully together every day.
There will be 8 ethnic (*cash only) food booths and at least 50 booths representing ethnicities, countries, local organizations, and vendors. The festival is a wonderful educational event for people of any age. Its a way to travel around the world without leaving the Dotte! Our main sponsors are KCKCC, the United Government of Wyandotte County Department of Human Services, and Visit Kansas City Kansas. There will be 13 entertainment groups on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. Most are traditionally costumed dance groups performing every half hour. Live music performances will include the Croatian string orchestra Hrvatski Obicaj, gospel music, Mexican dancers and many more.
Starting in 2011 two people in the community are honored each year as Legends of Diversity. The individuals selected make a concerted effort to work together with a variety of people on a variety of concerns, measures, and issues to benefit the community. We are pleased to announce that the 2023 winners are Rose Marie Mendez and Brian Patrick. Past winners are shown below:
2011 - Loren Taylor and Pat Adams
2012 - Ed Grisnik and Chester Owens
2013 - Helen Folsom and Carol Levers
2014 - Karen Hernandez and Melanie Scott
2015 - Janith English - Kamiasha Tyner
2016 - Irene Caudillo and Alvin Sykes
2017 - Barbara Clark-Evans and Dr. Eyyup Esen
2018 - Dr. Ewa Unoke and Ed Chasteen
2019 - Dr. Hira Nair and Gordon Criswell
2020 -2021-2022 - cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2023 - Rose Marie Mendez and Brian Patrick
If you have any questions
contact Curtis V. Smith, 913-549-0107, or email at [email protected]
We look forward to seeing you once again at this great community event!
The Board of Wyandotte County Ethnic Festival Inc.
President and Master of Ceremonies - Clarence Small
Former KCKCC Trustee - Karen Hernandez
Coordinator and Treasurer; former KCKCC Professor of Biology, Dr. Curtis V. Smith
KCKCC Director of the Art Gallery, Shai Perry
KCKCC Coordinator of Community and Adult Education, Janel Sanders
KCKCC Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Hira Nair
KCKCC Professor of Political Science, Dr. Ewa Unoke
KCKCC Director of Students Activities, Andrica Wilcoxen