Are you ready for the 5th Annual Turkish Festival?

By Demet Cabbar
President, ATA-DC

I cannot express how proud I feel as I am writing this article about the Annual Turkish Festival. Yes, you have read it right. We finally do have a "Traditional and Annual" Turkish Festival in Washington, D.C. that everyone looks forward to! Over the past five months as the ATA-DC's festival committee spent endless hours to ensure that every single item on the pages long to do list of the festival is covered and taken care of , I have come to a very exciting realization. In the past five years, not only did the Turkish Festival itself
improve and expand, but also it has also helped the Turkish American community in the Washington, DC area come together and join forces to make this event bigger and better every year. Turkish Festival has been a community building exercise. We have delightfully observed and enjoyed this community support in all stages of the separation process from the fundraising efforts to recruiting food and retail vendors, to signing up artists and performers. Hundreds of people showed up to give their support to the festival in our two fundraisers. The food vendors have lined up one after the other to provide the best of Turkish cuisine to the festival-goers. American performing groups contacted us and requested to take stage at the Festival. Many businesses and individuals showed their generous support by making cash and in-kind contributions to the festival and to its particular activities. To see this kind of support and enthusiasm towards the festival has motivated ATA-DC and the festival committee and allowed them to focus on developing and implementing new ideas as well as improving the existing ones. For instance, this year we invested a lot of time and energy on expanding the Kids Activities Tent in which all kids will be given a passport and be asked to visit all seven regions of Turkey and work on crafts that represent each region. In the end kids who visit certain numbers of regions and complete crafts activities will win a Turkish goodie bag. On stage, in addition to colorful and exciting folk dance and musical performances from Turkey the Caucasus and Central Asia, an American performing group will stage an Act telling the story of the Captain John Smith's - the famous American historical figure - encounter with the Ottomans and the time he spent in Istanbul and his love story with a Tatar girl there. This year at the festival you will also see improved signage and maps of activities. As always the smell of the Turkish coffee and tea will flow in the air and the Turkish Bazaar with more than 25 vendors will offer a taste of the chaotic charm of the Grand Bazaar.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the previous years the motto of the festival was "come and try us". Now, we feel that the festival has already proven itself over the past four years. We know what we can offer and we are confident. Therefore this year we moved to a new slogan that is "come to the Turkish Festival, of course".

Once again, on behalf of ATA-DC Board of Directors and the Turkish Festival committee, I thank you all for your support of the 5th ANNUAL Turkish Festival. We are looking forward to another very exciting Turkish Day in the heart of Washington, DC. Remember: "Don't miss the Turkish Festival, of course"

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