On October 4, people from dozens of cultures will come together at Franklin & Marshall College with the food, music, and clothing each community is proudest of. The festival that brings them together began with one woman’s busy Saturday in September. She wanted to attend three festivals in a single day: lunch at the Indian festival, then a drive across the county to an African festival put on by Rafiki Africa, and an evening with the Latin American community at Long’s Park.
At her first stop, she found the organizer, Deepa Balepur, making rounds with a clipboard, and told her it was “a very special day for Lancaster County.” Then the attendee offered an idea. Why not bring all three together, under one roof, on one day?
Balepur couldn’t shake it. The next morning she called the organizer of the Latin American festival, and soon after reached Dorothy Dulo of Rafiki Africa. “Look, here’s a crazy idea,” she remembered telling them. “What do you all think?”
They talked it over lunch and agreed. Other cultural groups signed on, and a committee of about eight began planning an event, and the first One World Festival opened its doors in 2022.
The event is now in its fifth year. The festival will take place on Sunday, Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the college’s Alumni Sports & Fitness Center. Admission is free.
Dulo summed it up in a sentence. “The One World Festival really is like bringing the world to Lancaster in one room,” she said.
Visitors walk in through a balloon arch that Jenny Schulder, who helps plan the floor layout, likes to call a portal. Past it, the vendor tables begin, covered in fabric, jewelry, clothing and perfume. The smell of Indian curry drifts over from the food stalls, mixed with Middle Eastern and Greek cooking, and a new act starts on the stage every five to 10 minutes.
What surprises first-time visitors most, she said, is the quality. Each community brings the finest of what it has. Dulo says, “They bring the best. What really represents them.”
Balepur counts at least 12 to 15 cultures at the festival, including Indian, African, Latin American, Greek, Jewish, Islamic, Irish, Italian, German, and Moroccan American. For the past couple of years, the Hmong community, one that Balepur said “you don’t hear about too much,” has run a cultural booth of its own.
“When you’re just walking, you don’t realize, wow, there are dozens of different cultures in Lancaster,” Dulo said. “But here, it’s all brought together.”
This year the stage will be busier than ever. The festival usually books 12 to 15 performances; this year there will be 20 or more, starting at 11:30 a.m. and running until the doors close at 5.
“No matter when people come, there’s going to be something wonderful for them to see,” Balepur said.
The committee surveys its audience every year, and parents kept asking for more for their children to do, so the festival built a kids zone, with face painting, balloon sculptures, glitter tattoos and magicians who perform interactive shows.
There is no right way to see it all. Cultural organizations staff tables where visitors can stop and ask questions. Some people shop, some eat at tables within view of the stage, and some settle into the chairs up front for, as Schulder put it, “a performance or five.”
“It’s really kind of a choose your own adventure,” she said.
A visitor could grab a plate and be gone in half an hour, but few do. The festival’s surveys show that most people stay three to four hours. Balepur said one comment from past surveys has stayed with her: “I didn’t intend to spend that much time. I thought I’d do in and out, but I just couldn’t leave.”
One year, a family from Texas spotted the festival’s banner from the road and pulled in on a whim. They told organizers their trip would run late, Balepur said, because they couldn’t bring themselves to leave.
For Schulder, the heart of the day is the conversation at the tables. The festival, she said, “feels safe and it feels comfortable to talk about who we are and where we come from, and to have a dialogue with people who are not like us.”
“You can find common ground with anybody,” she said. “That’s what I believe.”
Last year, a committee member built a wishing well out of balloons and invited children to write down their wishes for the world. Balepur said she expected to read requests like “I wish for a Barbie doll for Christmas”.
Instead, the elementary school children wished that people would treat each other better.
“It was very heartwarming,” Balepur said.
What to Know Before You Go
The fifth annual One World Festival runs Sunday, Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Alumni Sports & Fitness Center at Franklin & Marshall College, 929 Harrisburg Ave., Lancaster. Admission is free, a cost covered by sponsors led by Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health and the Lancaster County Community Foundation. Food and goods cost money, though the festival keeps vendor fees low.
Registration isn’t required, but organizers ask visitors to reserve a spot at oneworldfestivallancaster.org so food vendors can plan for the crowd. On-site parking is free and plentiful.