Festál at Seattle Center

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Festál at Seattle Center is a program of annual ethnically-related festivals that take place on the grounds of Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington.

Festál began in 1996 and as of 2004 includes:

• Têt Festival, celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year
• Festival Sundiata: an African-American Celebration
• Irish Week Festival
• Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival
• Celebrate Cambodia!
• Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration
• Northwest Folklife Festival
• Chinese Culture & Arts Day
• Pagdiriwang Philippine Festival
• A naturalization ceremony on U.S. Independence Day
• Bastille Day
• BrasilFest
• TibetFest
• Korean Cultural Celebration
• Fiestas Patrias (for Mexican Independence Day)
• The Italian Festival
• CroatiaFest
• TurkFest
• Día de los Muertos
• Hmong New Year Celebration

The 2005 schedule added the Arab Festival.

The Festál events range enormously in scope, from a July 4 naturalization ceremony to the enormous pan-ethnic Northwest Folklife Festival, which draws an estimated 250,000 visitors on Memorial Day weekend. Typical Festál events draw 5,000 to 20,000 visitors. Some (such as Fiestas Patrias) of them draw crowds that are predominantly of the ethnic group that is the focus of the festival; others draw more of a cross-section of the city.

[edit] External link

• The official site for Festál at Seattle Center included descriptions of each of these festivals.