WEST BARNSTABLE – Cape Cod Community College’s 17th Annual Cape Cod Arts & Culture Expo wrapped up yesterday at the at the college’s West Barnstable campus.
The event capped five days of festivities showcasing the histories, lifestyles and cultures of people from around the world who call Cape Cod their home.
This year marks the first as the “Cape Cod Arts & Culture Expo,” having been known for the last 16 years as simply the Cape Cod Community College Multicultural Festival.
According to Tilden Arts Center and College Events Coordinator Vana Trudeau the name change reflects a desire to heighten focus on the Cape community, “This year we wanted to try something just a little bit different, still celebrate our global cultures but also highlight some of what makes Cape Cod culture really unique.”
Other changes include a shift in date until after the busy summer tourist season, allowing more working residents the opportunity to take part in the festivities.
“We expanded it. We grew it. It went from just having a few entertainers on our Tilden Arts Center stage to filling our Grossman Commons with displays plus all of the entertainers and brought in food trucks,” said Michael Gross, a college spokesman “It kept expanding and growing and expanding and growing to the point where it really outgrew itself for the March timeframe.”
Like in previous years, the event featured an International Marketplace and Exhibitor Area, along with performances in the Tilden Arts Center.
Outdoor spaces was also utilized like never before, taking advantage of the great weather, inviting attendees to stroll the campus, play a game of corn hole, try their hand at juggling, and picnic on the patio while listening to an array of live music.
Special activities for children are also an important part of the festival. Face painting plus storytelling with live animals, and an “Adventure Passport” were available for young people to use as they visit displays and vendors from all over the world.
Trudeau, who says she has been working on the festival for more than a year, said that she expected roughly one thousand people to come through the event yesterday alone.
Trudeau said that she is very proud of this year’s event, “We took some time to get some feedback and we put together a nice assortment of performers from around the globe and give something for everyone from the very very young to the very very… experienced, shall we say.”
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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