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Photos by Cydney McFarland
Savory aromas of traditional cuisine and fragrant smoke from the hookah lounge filled the air while live performances drew in the crowd at the Arab American Festival.
The festival, which is one of four annual events put on by the Arab American Association, took place at Steele Indian School Park for the second consecutive year.
Despite unusually high weekend temperatures, the festival attracted around 6,000 attendees, according to Sara Massoud, the event’s public relations coordinator.
“We have different Arab ethnicities; we represent 22 Arab countries,” Massoud said. “You can get a little bit of a taste of each country.”
The festival, which is non-religious and non-political, attracts a variety of attendees each year, she added.
“Sometimes you don’t realize how much of a culture group is within a community until you look,” Massoud said. “Some people don’t even realize about their own culture.”
Vendors offered services and retail, each representative of the diversity and unity of the Arab community.
“We welcome all ethnicities,” Massoud said. “We do this to unite everybody, regardless of the distinction between the Arab cultures. We want to get away from all the negativity in the media – locally and globally.”
Food vendors offered authentic dishes and traditional favorites, including kabobs, hummus and baklava.
“When we get chances like these festivals, we jump in,” said Rob Bolis, a food vendor raising funds for the Ancient Church of the East, Saint George Parish. “I have not met a nationality of people who did not enjoy a Middle Eastern festival or shindig.”
Bolis said cooking, serving, and eating Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine at his church are favorite pastimes.
“You don’t want to forget your culture; culture is important,” he said. “We don’t look at it as Christians and Muslims.”
Massoud likened the diversity of ethnicities and cultures represented in the festival’s participation and attendance to different recipes of the same dish.
“You don’t get one; you get 22 flavors,” she said.
Entertainment included dancers and singers from Phoenix to as far as Iraq.
Yasser Darwish, an Egyptian dancer who performed both days at the festival, said the art of dance and the attractions of the festival bridge the gaps in the community.
“In celebrating Middle Eastern culture, it doesn’t have to be only Middle Eastern people,” he said. “We’re all Americans.”
The festival also offered locally-based acts an opportunity to perform for the community.
“It’s always a thrill to perform here at the Arab American Festival,” said Samaralyn Willocks, a belly dancer with Alexandria Dance Company of Phoenix.
“I think there is a lot of intrigue with belly dancing and with women getting into it,” she said. “(I was) intrigued by this ancient form of feminine dance, to learn to move your body in a way you never have before gives you a feminine sense of self.”
Willocks said she thinks there are misconceptions about belly dancing and that the history and story told through this form of expression is important.
“I find great soul in (this) music; it touches you,” she said. “You can feel it inside and that’s what gets me more than anything.”
With the Miss Belly Dance Queen competition scheduled for November, and Miss Arab USA and the Arizona International Festival earlier in the year, the association is always preparing for the next event, Massoud said.
“Come see what we’re all about,” she said. “Come eat with us, come dance with us.”
Contact the reporter at kara.philp@asu.edu
