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Arab American Festival Brings Diverse Communities Together
Kahadija McNitt is a Moroccan living in Champion’s Gate. Amal Kassem is a Kissimmee Egyptian. Abdullah Alshareef, born in Saudi Arabia, lives in Oviedo.
But on Sunday, they were all at a Festival Park in Orlando celebrating their cultures, heritages, customs and food at the Arab American Cultural Festival. The festival, in its third year, brings together the diverse, yet divergent, Arab populations in Central Florida in the same place at the same time.
“When you put it all in one place, it brings new understand as to who we are as Arab Americans,” said Victoria Kassis, a member of the Arab American Community Center, which organized the event.
There are an estimated 22,000 Arab-Americans scattered over Metro Orlando counties of Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole. But there is no single concentration of Arabs in Central Florida, no predominantly Moroccan or Egyptian or Jordanian neighborhoods.
So for Egyptian-born artist Rania Hamama, the festival is one of the few opportunities she has to meet other Egyptians in Central Florida and meet Arabs from other countries.
“It is the only time I get to see people and meet new people,” she said.
McNitt said when she moved to Central Florida 20 years ago, she could count the number of fellow Moroccans on both hands. The Moroccan community has grown large enough that there’s now a Moroccan American Chamber of Commerce, formed in 2003.
“We have a big community that is growing,” she said.
From her vendor’s booth selling head scarves starting at $3, Kassem said the parade of people by her booth has been like the roll call of Middle Eastern nationalities.
“You have some from Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, Palatine,” said Kassem.
The festival was a mix of the authentic Arab with the genuine American. Home-style kofta sandwiches, falafel, and kabobs side-by-side with French Fries, Italian sausage, and fried green tomatoes. There were flavored hookah tobaccos that came in mango, cola and guava and something uniquely American called Sandy Candy — “make your own sand art you can eat.”
That Arab-American mix was reflected the crowd as well: people lined up on a muggy afternoon to pay the $5 entrance fee wearing jeans, head scarves, shorts, ball caps, and tank tops that said Lebanon on the front.
It was the first Arab Fest for Richard Wilson and his friend, Sahar Irwin, from Iran.
“It’s great to see a diversity of people,” Wilson said. “And the food is phenomenal.”
Organizers expected 20,000 people to attend the festival. It’s the first year the AACC has charged admission, which raises money for the community center’s programs, said spokeswoman Rasha Mubarak.
“This is a cultural festival to help the community center serve our community,” Mubarak said.
Alshareef said he didn’t have any problem paying to get in, but the bottleneck at the only entrance gate — along with the logjam of traffic trying to get into and out of the parking lot through the same entrance — suggests the organizers are still learning the logistics of a large cultural festival
“It’s OK with me to pay. That’s fine,” he said, “but it needs to be more organized.”
Jeff Kunerth
Orlando Sentinel