Ever eaten Moroccan food? Food from Bangladesh? How about Turkey? Those are just a few of more than 20 nations whose cuisines you can sample at the Multicultural Festival at Dee Stadium, following the 27th annual Parade of Nations on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Admission is free; meals or snacks can be purchased at the food booths.
During the Multicultural Festival, entertainers representing many countries and traditions will perform on a raised stage. They include the Kivijat Dancers, cloggers, music and Bollywood dancers from the Michigan Tech Indian Students Association, Bells on the Bay—a group of handbell performers—Jan Arnold, a singer who accompanies herself on the guitar, the Michigan Tech Dance Squad and Bob Hiltunen, a singer who plays guitar, bass and keyboards. The Michigan Tech Pep Band will march in the Parade.
A family trip to Chicago will be the top prize in a drawing at the Dee. To enter, spectators need to hold up “I Love Parade of Nations” signs during the parade.
Jam-skating at Rozsa Center
The headline act this year is Breaksk8, a professional jam-skating team that likes to push the limits of dancing with wheels under your shoes.
They have toured the world and appeared in films. Breaksk8 will skate in the parade on Saturday, Sept. 17 and put on a colorful show at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on the Michigan Tech campus later that evening.
The Keweenaw Roller Girls (KRG) will also skate in the parade. On Wednesday, Sept. 14—three days before the parade—the KRG will host an Open Skate for the community at the Houghton County Arena, 1500 Birch Street, Hancock. Admission is free, and the event is open to all ages and abilities. Participants need to bring their own skates.
Another Parade of Nations week special event will be “Passport to the Ethnic Cultures of the Upper Peninsula", a panel discussion by local authors, presented by the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association. The panel includes Cyndi Perkins, who will provide a general ethnic overview of the area; Deborah Frontiera, who has written books involving the Finnish culture; and Larry Buege, whose writing encompasses Native American culture. The free program is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12 at the Portage Lake District Library.
On Thursday, Sept. 15, the Hancock Rotary Club will host its annual Fall Winetasting fundraiser at the Finnish American Heritage Center, celebrating the Parade of Nations. The fundraiser benefits local and international projects.
The Parade of Nations is supported in part by the Keweenaw Community Foundation.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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