The International Festival (I-Fest) has been a tradition at the university for the last 45 years. The event is hosted annually by the Office of Graduate and International Student Life (OGISL) with the purpose of celebrating the number of diverse cultures present on campus, including those native to the U.S.

“I-Fest planning typically starts after the end of the spring semester,” said Director of Graduate and International Student Life, Steve Macchiarolo. The nearly year-long planning is a result of the events scale, with catering, set up and other factors requiring careful preparation. “As you can imagine there are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to planning an event of this size,”

Macchiarolo takes pride in hosting and planning these events.

“My favorite part of hosting this event is seeing our entire campus community come together and get to experience the diverse cultures of our students,” he said. “From the elaborate cultural displays to the intricate performances this is my favorite event of the year.”

This year’s I-Fest took place on April 4 as part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week and lasted from 4-9 p.m. During the events, students gathered and shared their culture in the form of food, music and dance. This year, 1,000 attendants gathered in the Beckerman Recreation Center to celebrate.

In previous years, organizing food portions had been an issue, however with some tweaks, this issue has been resolved for the past two years.

“One of the biggest challenges we have faced in recent years has been when it comes to organizing the food portion of the event,” Macchiarolo said. He explained that the food subcommittee would love to have food from every nation represented, however it would prove to be challenging.

“The past two years have gone much smoother as we have simplified the menu and have had a great partnership with Sodexo who has really stepped up and assisted us with facilitating this campus tradition,” he said.

Specific to this year’s theme, the celebration kicked off with a Parade of Nations. “This year being an Olympics theme we were able to add a Parade of Nations and had students, faculty, and staff process into the rec center with their flag and in their traditional country attire which I thought was a great addition to this year’s program,” said Macchiarolo.

While this event has been going on for as long as it has, the OGISL is always hopeful and looking into expanding every I-Fest as the tradition continues. “The goal of the committee would be to continue to enhance this event and increase participation of our undergraduate domestic students. This campus tradition has been going on for the last 45 years and the purpose of this event is to celebrate all our diverse cultures on campus including those from right here in the United States,” said Macchiarolo.

“The committee was so excited to have a musical performance from an undergraduate student this year as well as a group dance performance from the Tropixx,” Macchiarolo said. “We hope that we can continue to expand this event in future I-Fests.”