Variety of acts display talents for CranFest
CRANBERRY TWP — The Cranberry Township Municipal Center was awash in sound and vibrant colors Saturday during the Cranberry Area Diversity Network's annual CranFest.
The celebration of cultures featured music, dancing, food and information about a variety of races, religions and ethnicities.
Stage presentations ran simultaneously in the gymnasium and the building's Town Square and included performers from the Philippines, Ireland, Bulgaria, China and India. Food booths from Hungary, India, Italy, Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, Columbia and the Philippines were also stationed in the gym.
A CranFest attendee, Emily Andrulonis, of Cranberry Township, said she had attended the event in the past and enjoyed it.
“We love watching the Bell dancers,” she said.
The Bell School of Irish Dance was one of the first groups to take the stage. The group took part in traditional Irish dances and provided facts about the dances. An emcee explained that the original dancers needed to keep their upper bodies stiff, faces serious and arms pinned to their sides to make sure people looking in windows at them wouldn't see them dancing. At the time of those dances' popularity, laws existed against that form of expression.
The emcee also noted that certain shoes needed to be worn to make enough noise, so that if the dancers were about to be found out, stomping could warn them to hide. Andrulonis also said she likes that the event “exposes the kids to different cultures.”
This year's CranFest promised to be the largest and most inclusive to date, offering input from more than 17 regions with the aim to educate the community on the different cultures and people in the area.
Tables offering information and keepsakes were set up around the building's corridors and encouraged learning through conversation.Three Seneca Valley students — Emily Tekelenburg, 17, Max Skeen, 17, and Sonya Dietz, 12 — ran a table for attendees to learn about origami.Both Emily and Max said they were helping at the table because they're friends of the Dietz family. Sonya said her mother is half-Japanese and that showing others their culture became important in recent years.Max said it was his first year participating, but Emily and Sonya had been to CranFest before.“My mom got asked to do it,” Sonya said. “So, we started doing it as a family.”Emily and Sonya said their favorite part of the day was getting to help children learn how to create a new image out of paper — but also the food.“It's cool to experience different cultures,” Emily said, “especially being in a non-diverse area.”
