Festival at Merriweather Park Saturday aims to celebrate Asian American culture

A festival that aims to celebrate Howard County’s diversity and showcase a variety of performers and cuisines is set for Saturday in Columbia.

The third annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Festival will be held noon to 5 p.m., Saturday, at Merriweather Park and Symphony Woods in Columbia. The event is sponsored by the the Howard County AAPI Commission in partnership with Inner Arbor Trust.

The festival will feature more than 350 performers from 27 groups showcasing traditions from 14 cultures, via art, dance, martial arts, tai chi demonstrations and other expressions, according to the Howard County AAPI Commission. Asian cuisine can be purchased from food vendors onsite, including AJ Hawaiian Shave Ice, Blowfish Poke & Grill, Clove & Cardamom, Namit Filipino Barbecue and Peter Chang.

Other exhibitors and vendors include 8 Lucky Forests, Art by Lakshmi, Chinese American Parent Association of Howard County, Misako Ballet Studio and Project Lotus.

Nina Basu, chief executive officer and president of Inner Arbor Trust, the nonprofit that manages Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, said the idea behind the festival was to create an event that embraces the entire community.

“We have a tremendous amount of diversity in this community and not enough of that diversity shows up on our stages,” she said. “We wanted to work authentically with communities and bring them in as partners to showcase the diversity and amazing arts that Howard County has to offer.”

Lanlan Xu, chair of the Howard County AAPI Commission, said she hopes the festival will serve as a way to bring together the many AAPI communities in the county.

“We tried really hard to reach out to the different communities and we hope that this will … be an opportunity to be able to form those connections with those groups and collaborate and explore more in the future,” she said.

For more information, visit innerarbortrust.org.