Midway through Culturefest 2004, event organizers report that the scheduled festivities, set to run until this Friday, have proven successful in drawing substantial crowds.
Focused around the theme "The Whole World in Our Hands," Culturefest 2004 is Hopkins's 20th annual celebration of campus diversity and is also part of Baltimore's weeklong celebration of International Education Week.
"I think the events have been more successful than we envisioned in terms of the number of people in attendance," said senior Ed Chan, a Culturefest co-chair. "We've had a diverse group in terms of undergraduates, graduate students, and people in the community."
Publicity co-chair Alex Obe, a sophomore, agreed.
"In terms of word on the street afterwards, it seems to be turning out really well," Obe said.
"A lot more people attended this year than last year," said artistic director Alice Huang, a sophomore. "It has been gratifying to know that people knew what the Culturefest was."
Both Chan and co-chair Isi Oribabor report that the changes organizers made after Culturefest 2003 have aided in drawing larger crowds to events.
"We decided to hold fewer events so that we could concentrate on certain events," Oribabor said.
Of the events held so far, the Culture Show and the International Night Market have drawn the largest crowds.
The Culture Show was held on Saturday night and brought a crowd of over 800 to Shriver Hall. The show included performances of ethnic dancing, music and martial arts.
"We received a huge turnout for the Culture Show," said fundraising co-chair Alice Li, a junior. "We were blown away by how well the Culture Show coordinators worked together."
The International Night Market was a expanded version of last year's food court. Organizers served free Chinese, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Cuban, Arabian, Latino, Iranian and Turkish food to students on Sunday night in the Glass Pavilion. Before the event started, students lined up as far back as the Breezeway to wait.
"This year's International Night Market was more successful than we had ever hoped for," event planner Gayatri Patel said. "We had between 400 and 500 people come, and it seemed like a true sign of people coming together."
Some students, however, found that the food supply could not accommodate the turnout.
"The food quality was good, but they ran out of food," freshman Amar Dixit said. "But that's understandable for the numbers and the long lines."
The free food was made possible by a $1,500 donation from Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and Sodexho, which provided $600 and use of a grill, stove, linens and utensils.
Additionally, the University provided the Culturefest committee with $12,000 in support for the entire event. OMSA also provided stamps for the mailings that were used to solicit further donations from area businesses.
"They all gave us a lot this year to provide us with a good Culturefest. We couldn't have done it without their help," Patel said.
Despite the numbers at the Culture Show and the International Night Market, some events continued to draw a slim crowd.
"The lowest turnout was the movie night. Hopkins never seems to be good with movie nights," Oribabor said.
Chan speculated that the entertainment-oriented events attracted far more turnout than other events, which may have suffered in comparison.
"At some of the smaller events, we might not get as much student participation because it's an educational event, such as the North/South Korea discussion panel held on Thursday night," said Chan.
According to organizers, the Culturefest committee worked within a mission of blending both entertainment and education for the festival.
"This year we wanted to get more students involved and more students coming out to events, so it was a delicate balance between entertainment and education," Chan said.
"Compared to previous years we were more successful with students coming to entertainment events, but have had smaller numbers coming to educational events."
Chan also cited publicity issues for lower turnout at some of the smaller events.
"I think we could have started publicity earlier -- at least a week in advance rather than just a few days before the events started," Chan said.
As a part of International Education Week, according to a statement released by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the purpose of events like Culturefest is to "highlight the benefits of international education and exchange, to express appreciation for students and scholars who study and teach here, and to commend the millions of people who build and strengthen bridges of international understanding by organizing and participating in exchange programs."
In addition to the support of colleges and universities in the Baltimore area, Baltimore's fifth annual International Education Week, of which Culturefest was a part, was run in part by Mayor O'Malley's Immigrant Support Working Group.
"Culturefest is about spreading culture within the Hopkins community because it's one of the bigger times where students can come out and share what their culture is about," said Oribabor.
"It's an opportunity for students, faculty, and Baltimore residents," Obe said. "I think we've put out our goal to the community."
Huang expressed hopes that students were both entertained and informed by the Culturefest events.
"There's entertainment value, but at the same time I hope people take advantage of the opportunity we bring them to enhance their knowledge about cultures," Huang said.
Remaining events include the Faces of the Caribbean Pageant on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion, the Student Diversity Leadership Conference on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Great Hall of Levering and the closing ceremony on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion.
More than 12 other universities in the Baltimore area participated in International Education Week.
