Dear Friends,

We hope you will be part of the World Festival again this year. It will be the 38th! You are a part of a very long and proud tradition of people sharing their culture with the community. Since 1976 we have shown the great diversity and the many different cultures and contributions of international people and minorities in SE Minnesota. Last year we had about 3000 people attending on the two days.

A very big change this year: WE ARE MOVING BACK TO JOHN MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL! The big pros of this are:

• Cafeteria, lobby, gym and hallways are all very close together. It will be a lot easier for everybody to navigate the area. There won’t be anybody, who cannot find one or the other, we hope.
• The cafeteria is not quite as huge, so no displays need to be in there. No loneliness after the food rush!
• We will mix up the children’s activities, cultural displays, organizational displays and stage events on Saturday for a lively ambience. Marketplace will be in the lobby, also close by.
• We will only have the entrance at the gym side open. Everybody coming in will be immediately in the festival area.
• Parking should be closer and easier.

The only negative for the displays is, that we have very limited electrical outlets and they are not well distributed. So we hope that you will bring your laptops fully charged and won’t need to be plugged in, and make sure that you indicate on the sign-up for an electrical outlet only, if you really need it. We’ll try and work with extension cords, but it may be a challenge. We don’t want to blow out the fuses and have everybody bunched up on one side of the gym!

Please check our website http://www.ria-minnesota.org/worldfestival for sign-ups and information as we go along.

Thank you all for your past presence and enthusiasm! We hope to carry it on. We are all volunteers – the RIA is a small organization with a big event and no paid staff. We just believe in what we do and how important it is to share what we all bring to Rochester.

World Festival meetings:

Your input is always in demand! We can only make it better, if we get feedback and suggestions. Please put on your calendar to come February 11, March 11 and April 8 at 7:30 pm at the IMAA Building 2500 Valley High Dr. NW (close to 19th St. NW), if you want to come to the organizing meetings.

Thank you all and Happy New Year!
Herta