Global Fest returns to Aurora this weekend to celebrate Colorado's most diverse city, with more food trucks and flags representing more countries than ever before.
The event is Saturday, Aug. 19, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Aurora Municipal Center, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway.
The event kicks off with the Parade of Nations, a staple of the event.
"It's similar to the Olympics opening ceremonies, where you see countries [with populations in Aurora] are represented with people carrying in the flags of the countries of origin," said Michael Brannen, senior media relations strategist with the City of Aurora. "We are bringing that back this year with actually more countries than ever, as well. We've added 10 new flags."
Those flags are from Albania, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, the Marshall Islands, Morocco, Puerto Rico and Ukraine, according to Minsoo Song, Aurora's Community Outreach Coordinator for the Office of International and Immigrant Affairs. She explained that people from Aurora with roots in 57 different countries have been identified and recruited to bear the flag and march across the AMC stage, share a traditional greeting, and then promenade around the Great Lawn, adjacent to the municipal center.
"We recruit, like, 'OK, for this Global Fest, do we have any volunteers who want to represent your country?'" Song said. "Then we'll get more than enough."
Each country can assign one flag bearer, who can invite additional people from the same country onstage for the greeting. In the past, that part has taken a half-hour, but with an increase in flag-bearers, it will be longer this year.
The festival brings together residents of a multi-racial city and puts their many cultures on full display.
According to city data, Aurora is 58% white; 17% Black; 7% Asian; and 1% indigenous. The remainder of Aurora's nearly 400,000 citizens identify as being of two or more races or some other race, and 30% identified their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino.
Another returning feature is an array of food trucks representing cuisine from around the world.
"We have 18 food trucks, which is the most we've ever had, and it's covering cuisine from Senegal, Nepal, Venezuela and so many different countries from around the world," Brannen said.
Chef David Diop, who owns the Senegalese food truck the Pikine Grill Express, said he's ready to feed thousands. His food truck employs three people and specializes in Yassa burgers and Yassa chicken which he describes as "caramelized onion with mustard lemon chicken over the white rice." He said Senegalese cooking has its own version of many familiar entrees. He will also be serving Senegal's version of kebabs.
"We do gyro - lamb gyro or chicken gyro. And beside that, we do our famous chicken wings with our habanero sauce," Diop said.
Diop, who is in his 40s and came from near the Senegalese capital of Dakar, has participated in Global Fest near the end of the last decade.
The event will also feature an international marketplace on the Great Lawn.
"That's where we have like 12 home-based businesses [who] will be selling handmade crafts, jewelry, clothes, and spices," Song said, adding that because the chosen businesses don't have their own storefronts, the festival gives them a big platform.
Besides that, visitors will be able to see some local contest-winning photography.
"We invited our community to submit a photo, which just shows their life in the city," Song said. "So some [people] took photos of their children [and] their family members that show life in Aurora with our different cultural heritage."
Of the submissions, 25 standouts were selected. They're on display in the AMC now, and duplicate images will be shown as a backdrop at one of the tents, Song said.
Music and dance performers expected to take part will bring additional newness.
"We have lots of new performances that we've never had before," Brannen said. "We are having Lucha Libre Wrestling performances -- two different sessions of it."
An Aurora resident who plays traditional Mexican guitar, an 11-year-old keyboard phenom and a ballet troupe from Milan are in the mix to perform, too.
"It's a lot of culture in one city," said Diop, the Senegalese chef, "which makes the beauty of Aurora."
Editor's note: A previous version of this article and its headline incorrectly stated that Global Fest had not been held since the pandemic began. The event was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 and returned to in-person festivities in 2022.
