Brazilian dancers, Filipino spring rolls and 'warm fuzzies' to highlight Multicultural Festival

LACONIA — Becky Guyer has been leading the Laconia Multicultural Festival charge for nearly half of its 19-year history. Every year, she said, she thinks to herself that she doesn’t have time to do it again. But then the day comes when she gets to see the fruit of all her labors.

“It’s happy, it’s friendly, it’s fun," Guyer said. "It’s one of those events that you see everybody that you know. And it’s that experience of the diversity of the world.”

This year’s Multicultural Festival will be taking place on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The six-hour celebration of cultural diversity will include music and dance on two stages – one at Rotary Park and another at the City Hall parking lot – and food and vendors in between.

Guyer, executive director for the nonprofit organization that puts on the event, said she likes to “mix it up” when scheduling performers, so that people who attended last year’s event will be sure to see new singers, musicians and dancers. However, two of the acts last year were so impressive that she had to make an exception. Returning this year are Brazilian dancers SambaViva, and the 15-member, Connecticut-based Mariachi Mexico Antiguo.

“I was blown away last year,” by those two groups, Guyer said.

The Brazilian dancers and mariachi band will be part of the Rotary Park Stage rotation, along with an African drum and dance group, Indian music and dance, and Black Sea Salsa, playing Latin jazz and blues.

“Music adds so much flair to the festival, there’s so many great groups,” Guyer said. So many, in fact, that she needs two stages to accommodate them all. The City Hall Stage will be home to a group playing Irish music, a puppet show for children, a world music band, and Scottish music.

If all that dancing works up an appetite, there will be about a dozen food vendors on site, serving flavors from around the world. There will be American barbecue, as well as food from India, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Thailand, the Caribbean, Bhutan, the Philippines and Italy.

“You get to walk around and sample cuisine from around the world,” Guyer said.

Including the food, there will be more than 60 vendors participating. The list includes a Bolivian artist who works in mixed media, an artist from Iraq, a woman who does Japanese eggshell art, an African jewelry maker and a Madagascar basket weaver.

Because the event is free to attend, Guyer said she has no idea how many people came last year or will attend this year.

“All I know is it is packed, all the time,” she said. Last year, people came with lawn furniture and set up camp in the park so they could spend all day taking in the festival.

Guyer said the festival gives her a “warm, fuzzy feeling.”

“The world is huge, but it’s small at the same time,” she said. “The bottom line is, we’re all people. We all love, we all cry, we’re all the same. You go to something like this, people feel it.”

Liza Kelleher was born in Iloilo City, in the Philippines, but has spent half of her life in North America. She was living in Toronto when a mutual friend introduced her to Kevin Kelleher, who drove the 10 hours from Laconia to Canada’s largest city, every other week, until they were married.

Kelleher has ingrained herself into her new home city, working at the front desk at the city’s Parks and Recreation Department since 2003. And, working with two friends who are also from the Philippines, she has made sure that her first home is represented at the Multicultural Festival.

For nearly ten years, Kelleher has teamed up with Mimi Kemp, a physical therapist, and Gigi Marrone, who works in the UNH Cooperative Extension office, to prepare spring rolls, grilled meat skewers, chicken adobo and other Filipino favorites to sell at the festival.

The three of them will get together after work in order to prepare all of the ingredients, and they will cook them fresh for Saturday’s festival. Kelleher said they don’t take any shortcuts – what they serve at the festival is the same thing they would make for their own family.

“We do it from scratch,” she said. That includes hand-rolling each of the 1,000 spring rolls they will have ready for hungry festival-goers. “It is a lot of work.”

There are more Filipino food fans in New Hampshire than one might guess, she said. Many locals have already been introduced to the food, either through military service that stationed them in the Philippines, or because a veteran in their family came back from the service with a Filipina wife.

Though there are a few Filipino restaurants in New England, Kelleher said her trio’s food is easily the best representation of the food she grew up with. Every year, customers ask if they have a restaurant, or if they would cater, and the answer is that they wouldn’t be cooking if it were just about the money.

“It’s hard but we do it, but it’s only once a year,” she said. “We enjoy it, nobody is representing the Philippines, so we do it.”

Kelleher, Kemp and Marrone don’t have a name for their tent. Just look for the tent with three women in it, flying the Philippines flag.

Flag flyers

The Parade of Flags will again be the ceremonial opening of the Multicultural Festival. Guyer said she’s hoping to find someone to add an auditory element to the parade, such as a horn player, a bagpiper or a drummer.

She’s also looking for people who can volunteer to put on the festival. She still needs a few people who can help set up beforehand, or clean up afterward.

And then there’s the finances. It costs as much as $17,000 to put on the show. Most of that goes to the performers and for tent rentals. Guyer said fundraising has left them a little short this year, and some extra monetary support is needed.

Interested in helping? Reach out to Guyer by emailing beckyg@metrocast.net or by sending a message through the Laconia Multicultural Festival Facebook page. Donations can be mailed to: LMF, PO Box 1052, Laconia, NH, 03247.