A Very NICE Saturday In Norwalk
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On Saturday July 8th, Norwalk's Oyster Shell park, a beautiful hilltop overlooking the Norwalk River and SoNo held their annual NICE festival. NICE was created by the Norwalk International Cultural Exchange, is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote and increase awareness of the diversity of people from around the world through arts and culture.
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The event, first held in 2016 has grown to draw up to 5,000 visitors throughout the nearly 12 hour event. This seventh staging of the NICE festival, which was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic offers visitors a taste of the flavors of multiple world cultures in not only delicious ethnic foods from multiple vendor food truck, but in their native dances and traditional music.
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As their website states, "NICE specifically emphasizes celebrating folk and traditional arts from multiple cultures and ethnic groups across varied art forms and genres…"
One of the more spectacular performances was by Cebuanos in Engaging in Building Unity Inc's Tribu Cebuano which presented Sinulog. Performed at the Sinulog Festival which originated in Cebu City in the Philippines, it is held on the third Sunday of January. It commemorates the conversion of the Cebuanos to Roman Catholicism and pays tribute to the Santo Niño de Cebú, also known as the Holy Child Jesus.
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The word “Sinulog” means “graceful dance”, wherein it all started in 1980 with a simple dance that represents the “sulog” (or current) of a river in Cebu. With the celebration's evolution, the Sinulog Festival has become a month long tradition in Cebu.
The mission of NICE is to encourage the various groups that make up our society to learn about each other’s traditions and customs in order to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of what each group brings to our community.
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The festival receives high praise from the office of Norwalk's Mayor, Harry Rilling on the NICE website which says "In Norwalk, we make it a point to celebrate the uniqueness of our community and all the diverse cultures our city represents. No other event exemplifies the beautiful melting pot that Norwalk exhibits as well as the NICE Festival."
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The performers listed on their website included the Mike Camacho Quintet which performed a Jazz Tribute to Norwalk's own Horace Silver, Mariachi Mexico Antiguo featuring Tere Luna a Traditional Mexican Folkloric Ensemble, NYTAK, the Akwaaba Ensemble from Ghana, Rick Reyes who brought Latin American Fusion with more music provided by DJ Kebi who has spun at Aspen and the events worldwide.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.