City of Winter Garden introduces Culture Fest

The event will feature films, entertainment, art, food and more.

WINTER GARDEN — West Orange residents will have a chance to celebrate cultures from around the world at the inaugural two-day Winter Garden Culture Fest, held jointly by the city of Winter Garden and Florida Film Academy.

This family-friendly festival — set for 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2 — will provide opportunities to learn about other cultures through artists, live music, a film festival, cuisine, vendors, children’s activities and street performers. There will be free workshops, as well.

Culture Fest is the showcase event for Florida Film Academy’s “Creative Voice Project,” which supports scholarships and initiatives for young people in the arts.

Enjoy tea in an English garden and walk down Dickens Lane, taste global foods and beers and engage in interactive street art.

Many of the downtown shops and restaurants have picked a country to represent, including Harry & Larry’s BBQ (United States), alFresco (Spain), Sweet Traditions (France), Thai Blossom (Thailand), Savoree (Switzerland), Axum Coffee (Ethiopia), Sacred Olive (Italy), Attic Door (Germany), Tri & Run (Kenya), CHI (Australia), Tack Boutique (Ireland), Silver Shekel (Israel), Gracie’s Gifts (England) and Celebrity Medical Center (Caribbean). Ms. Bee’s is also getting into the game and representing “Candyland.”

Some will be decorating their entire store, others will have cultural performers outside their shops, and still others will offer food.

SILVER SCREEN

The film “Bahamas: Womanish Ways, Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy” — being shown at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday — has a local connection. Oakland Town Commissioner Joseph McMullen’s great-grandmother was Mary Ingraham, one of five women who founded the Women’s Suffrage Movement in 1948 to fight for the right to vote for all Bahamian women. The documentary is dedicated to the heroic struggle of Kate Moss and Mary Prince, two enslaved women who fought for their freedom in the 1820s in the Bahamas, and to the women of the movement who continued with the advocacy for freedom and social justice.

Ingraham’s daughter, Eliza Ingraham, lives in Central Florida.

McMullen said he remembers visiting the family house in the Bahamas when his great-grandmother was alive; the home is still standing, he said, and it is being turned into a museum for the suffrage movement.

THE DETAILS

• Film festival, sponsored by Garden Theatre — Meet filmmakers and enjoy free international films: “Ringtone” (Australia), “2501 Migrants” (Mexico), “The Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas: Womanish Ways, Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy” (Bahamas) and “Under 23 — a Celebration of Young Filmmakers” (U.S.).

• Performing Arts Main Stage, sponsored by Florida Film Academy — at Lakeview Avenue and Plant Street. Shows are: Rosie O’Grady’s Highlanders Pipes and Drums, Watters School of Irish Dancing, Windermere Prep Wren 5 Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Band, USA Dance’s Ballroom Blast!, Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony, Creative Soles Dance, Florida Opera Theatre Youth Company, A MAGI World Belly Dance of Orlando, Tifinie Presents Day of the Dead body art, Read Set Dance: Bollywood, Bridgewater Middle School Encore Orchestra, Layla Brisbois, Flamenco del Sol, Traditional Martial Arts Center and Ellipsis.

• Plant Street performances — at three zones. Shows are: Crooked Road, Winter Garden Karate, the Talako Indian Dancers, So Noted a cappella, Rhythm and Basketball, Didgeridoo by Dominic Gaudious, Orisirisi African Folklore and Ready Set Dance.

• Dickens Lane, sponsored by Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater — Become immersed in Victorian London and experience magicians and performers.

• English Tea Room, sponsored by Cambridge Home Ideas (CHI) — Near the intersection of North Boyd and Plant streets.

• Beer tent — American bands will play all day near the beer tent, set up on North Main Street south of Plant.

• Artists Marketplace — Local, national and international artists will be set up along Tremaine Street.

• Youth art area, sponsored by Crealde School of Art — All-day events include performances and a youth art show, a chance to leave a mark in paint at the Winter Garden Art Association’s Cultural Fest mural, a lesson in saying “welcome” in 15 languages, and an opportunity to get a world passport stamped, street puppet show, flash mob, animated Australian short films, a 100-person drum circle and art activities such as pottery and painting.