The large student body of Stuyvesant comes from several diverse cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, it is surprising that Stuyvesant’s first combined Culture Festival, held on Thursday, December 20, 2007, sold only 250 tickets.

The Culture Festival was initially created because of conflicting views about individual culture nights. Last year, after the Diwali-Eid festival and Korean culture night had already taken place, seniors Huili Zhu, Shuang Li, Tiffany Li and Linda Yin wanted to organize a Chinese culture night.

However, Assistant Principal Organization Randi Damesek did not approve their plan, and said that there were no available dates on the Stuyvesant calendar to schedule such an event. She also said separate culture nights encouraged students to associate only with those of the same ethnicity.

Senior and Executive Producer of Culture Festival Aleena Paul described Damesek’s solution to this scheduling conflict. “Ms. Damesek felt that it would be a better experience for the student body if there was an event where all the cultures were represented,” Paul said.

The festival included both a food fair and a cultural show. However, the food fair, which began at 4:30 p.m., got off to a slow start. A long line formed outside the dining hall, creating a wait of at least 15 minutes and up to 45 to gain entrance, which caused unnecessary uproar. ARISTA members served traditional Asian dishes, including Korean rice cakes, edamame (green beans), Chinese beef, Indian curry with rice and shrimp lo mein. Food ran out quickly, to the disappointment of latecomers.
The limited supply of food could be partially attributed to financial issues. The Culture Festival finance committee was loaned 1,500 dollars from the Student Union (SU) and was under pressure to pay it back.. The lack of money forced the finance committee to underplay their use of facilities.

Fortunately, money from ticket sales allowed the finance committee to repay the money it owed.
Festival attendees then headed down to the Murray Kahn Theater for the cultural show, which started on time and was varied and well-done. The audience cheered enthusiastically not only at the end of each act, but also throughout the performances. The festival ended at 10:30 p.m., an hour later than it was supposed to.

One Indian dance the Indian Culture Club performed was set to a Bollywood movie song. The dancers were dressed in brightly colored salwars, or traditional Indian pant suits.

The Chinese performances included the traditional flag dance, in which each girl carried and whirled a large flag, making the flags look like bright orange flames.

The Chinese Song-Set was, in itself, an example of culture mixing because it melded both Chinese and Americans pop cultures. The performers sang in a mixture of Chinese and English in duets and solos, and were accompanied by a pianist, guitarist and percussionist.

But all cultures were not equally represented in the festival. The number of Japanese dances was greatly outnumbered by the number of Chinese and Indian dances. There were only two Japanese dances on the program, both choreographed by Japanese teacher Chie Helinski’s AP Japanese class.
“I don’t believe the cultures were represented as well as they could have been with individual shows.” Paul said. “Stuy has many more cultures than those that took part in the show.”

The Korean Parents’ Association (PA) also initially refused to participate in the festival since it had first introduced the concept of having individual culture nights, and wished to continue the tradition.
“The Korean [PA] doesn’t want to give up their individual culture nights, but ultimately, they have to because [Principal Stanley] Teitel and Ms. Damesek approved of this festival idea based upon the fact that everyone is together. They wouldn’t allow the Korean [PA] to have something individually. Even if they did, all the other cultures would fight it because then it would be extremely unfair, “ said Zhu, Finance Director of Culture Festival.

Despite the initial resistance, the Korean Culture Club made a last-minute decision to participate. Though this contributed to the festival’s success, it also added to its disorganization and confusion because the festival had already been planned without accounting for the Korean club’s contributions.
Senior and SU President Jamila Ma believes the Culture Festival loan was a good use of SU funding. Ma said, “The SU is supposed to support all student activities and we get excited when student groups get involved, especially when like in this case, it is a really good idea.”

The festival attracted people who had not attended individual culture nights before. “The cultural festival is better than individual culture nights because I’m actually going to it now. Individual culture nights are too much of a hassle. Culture Festival is longer and bigger so you get to see more,” junior John Hossain said.

However, many people disagree with Hossain’s viewpoint. Some argue that a large culture festival is more impersonal than individual culture nights. “Personally, I prefer individual nights because they are more personal and easier to organize. They allow for greater interactions between the performers and the audience,” Paul said.

Nevertheless, it is still questionable whether the festival will become a yearly tradition. “The SU made a huge contribution because we knew the Culture Festival was a great tradition that they could start. It had a good feeling and good turnout this year and I think that in following years, people will continue to come and be interested,” senior and SU Budget Director Liz So said.

Despite the difficulties in organization, Culture Festival was a considerable success, but since this year’s organizers are seniors, it’s up to the younger grades to determine whether or not it becomes a tradition.