Ethnic and eager: Fusion Fest draws performers, mom-and-pop cooks, Ferris wheel and art

SOUTH BEND — Ethnic Festival crowds packed the downtown pavement on steamy summer days — hungry for spicy food and culture — as belly dancer Ruby Jazayre and troupe rolled their hips on a round stage.

People gathered on all sides to watch, there in view of the old Robertson’s building, as the beloved festival launched Jazayre’s career in the Middle Eastern arts.

“It was very cool,” she recalls of the experience, which led her to belly dance her way around the United States.

About two decades later and with a debt in her heart, she jumped at the chance to dance in the city’s long-begged-for reincarnation of the Ethnic Festival, coming Sept. 9-10, all at Howard Park.

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Fusion Fest will group performers and dozens of food vendors by continents. More than 20,000 people are expected to converge on a city and a revamped park that all look different.

Food vendors, like Cambodian-born Sambath Cheakhun’s egg rolls — normally served just at private parties — will gather under large geometric tents.

Sure, you’ll also find standard vendors and local restaurants, from the Belgian offerings of Mishawaka’s BK Club to the Korean dishes of A Bite with Mee to the traditional African cuisine of International Fuse Bar & Grill.

But, to ensure that there’s a variety of truly ethnic foods at each tent (nope, no elephant ears here), the city reached out to some local home-based cooks like Cheakhun who, according to word of mouth, had a savory touch, Emily Sims, chief development officer for South Bend Venues, Parks and Arts, says.

The city hooked them up with local commercial kitchens to prep their cuisine, per the health regulations for public events, Sims says, adding, “We tried to eliminate every barrier.”

More than 50 food vendors and almost 20 artisans will serve in the tents, alongside entertainment stages for each of the five continental regions and bars serving that geography’s drinks. More than 50 performers are on the schedule.

And the weather is expected to be good all weekend.

“It’s going to feel like you’re traveling around the world, but you don’t have to leave South Bend,” Jordan Gathers, VPA’s acting director, said at a press conference Tuesday about festival plans.

Ferris wheel, fireworks and food art

Fusion Fest will also draw spectacles like the Scottish Highland Games, where experienced competitors will exhibit the caber toss, sheaf toss, hammer throw, stone throw and throwing a weight over a raised bar.

An international car show will boast about 75 vehicles. Free rides on a 20-seat dragon boat on the St. Joseph River — a boat loaned from the city of Fort Wayne — booked up last week, though the public can check for openings during the fest.

There will be free rides on a Ferris wheel — just as big (60 feet) as the one that proved popular at last fall’s Morris 100 Fest (no tickets, no advance registration). And a fireworks show will begin at 9 p.m. Sept. 9.

Food will become a participatory art as you sit down with fellow diners, all wearing headphones, as you take in a surprise menu of dishes from LaSalle Grill in “food sessions.” You will receive instructions on precisely what to do with the cuisine, such as how to place it in your mouth and what to observe. Cost is $30.

Food artist Nicolas Fonseca created this "guided meditation” on food, which he’s taken to other cities, in collaboration with Montreal-based art and design studio Daily Tous les Jours, which created the musical, pivoting Daydreamer benches along Jefferson Boulevard by the river.

Police will be watching

The Ethnic Festival originated in 1974 and ran almost 30 years as it continued to draw crowds.

At Tuesday’s press conference, city officials said they’ll take stronger precautions this time to avert the hard-to-control fights and vandalism that ultimately led the city to close the Ethnic Festival, which, in 2002, had been renamed Summer in the City.

South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski said there will be a strong presence of uniformed officers (feel free to talk with them, he added), along with plain-clothes officers and squad cars. If parks staff or event volunteers or vendors point out someone who’s causing trouble, Ruszkowski said, they will be removed, as police first ask them to leave immediately.

“We want to keep this family friendly,” the chief said.

No weapons will be permitted, he said. Bags may be searched. And all visitors will have to pass through metal detectors at the two key entrances — similar to last fall’s Morris Fest that also drew thousands to downtown without major security issues.

Chain-link fences have already gone up along the perimeter of the park as crews set up the tents and festival grounds this week, though the playground is still accessible.

City council member Troy Warner referred to the heavily attended Art Beat as he credits the city with pulling off “the second monster event in a three-week time period.”

Learn and grow from a fest

Sims says the essence of Fusion Fest is “culturally appropriate experiences for people of all ages.”

Ethnic Festival veteran Carolynn Hine-Johnson, with Spanish Rose Dance Co., will debut the group’s new mascot at Fusion Fest to help audiences understand their Spanish dance: Flossy the Flamenco Flamingo.

Flossy, a petite dancer from the Spanish Rose group, dons a mask and pink outfit with a long train that’s common among Flamenco dancers.

“It’s kind of educational and appealing to kids and adults,” Hine-Johnson says, hoping to take Flossy into schools.

At the Ethnic Festival, Hine-Johnson also did Latin dances with her previous Beaux Arts Ballet Co. Like so many others, she was disappointed to see the fest end.

“Everybody came together with the music, the dancing and the food," she reminisces. “It was wonderful to bring all of these cultures together.

Jazayre recruited her and her group to perform at Fusion Fest, along with Kelly Burgèt and her UZIMA! West African Dance Troupe.

In fact, as soon as Jazayre heard the city was doing Fusion Fest, she reached out and said, “I’m in.” Then she called on her dance colleagues — all three of them had started international dance classes at Indiana University South Bend — and said, "You need to be in this.”

Jazayre first danced at the Ethnic Festival in 1978, starting with her teacher, then came back with evolving groups that eventually became Sisters of the Nile, doing an Egyptian-style dance that she directs.

She fondly recalls those early fests, searching long for record albums that had the right cultural music, then “tediously” recording them onto cassette tapes for the performances. The group ducked into the nearby Youth Service Bureau office for three costume changes on the round stage.

“Being able to show our art and have a whole crowd like it was very refreshing,” she says.

All of that led her to a circuit of dance performances around the United States, along with teaching Middle Eastern dance nationally and in Germany and Canada and, thanks to her sister, even in Guatemala. Her belly-gram business helped to pay bills, too. When Colombian-born music star Shakira showed off belly dancing, Jazayre recalls, her classes filled up and the public wanted more of it.

She will dance with the same 14-member group that crowds saw at Art Beat, another fest that, early on, she credits with bringing a New York City vibe of street performers to the city.

The Ethnic Festival did what she hopes Fusion Fest will do, too.

“It brought together different cultures and made them aware of what there was here,” she says.

Are you hungry yet?

Cheakhun’s egg rolls, beef grilled on sticks and papaya salad may tempt. Her daughter and event planner, Sophea Chavira, says she already has a following set over the last 20 or so years of people who love the food she caters at private events

“They love her as a person, because she’s such a sweet person," Chavira adds. "She has a village.”

Cheakhun, now 61, came to South Bend as a refugee along with other family members in 1980, having left the Khmer Rouge regime and the political oppression that killed hundreds of thousands. Here in South Bend, refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam started to settle in the 1970s, known for their hard work. Cheakhun now is building a restaurant in South Bend that may take another year or so to open. But, for Fusion Fest, Chavira got her some time and space at Cinco 5 International restaurant to prep her foods because Chavira works as its manager.

Chavira says they are “super-overwhelmed” at the volume of food they are now preparing. They are also joyful because, she says, “It’s bringing Cambodia to life.”

What to know if you go

∎ Admission to Fusion Fest is free. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 9 and from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 10. Find a full schedule of performers and lists of vendors at sbfusionfest.com.

∎ Vendors and stages will be grouped by continental regions: Africa, Asia/Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

∎ Other activities at the fest include a movie marathon, Potawatomi Zoo interactive experience, Refugees to Neighbors exhibit and St. Joseph County Public Library genealogy exhibit.

∎ Camp chairs are encouraged so you can watch the concerts. Clear backpacks are permitted, but coolers and large bags aren’t.

∎ Parking will be available at the Wayne Street Grage, Crowe lot, St. Joseph High School lot, Everwise Credit Union, First Unitarian Church of South Bend and the School Field lot. Parking is also available on the streets within walking distance of Howard Park. ADA-accessible parking is available at the Zion Church lot. No public parking is permitted in the Primary Care Partners of South Bend Lot. Transpo’s trolley won’t be serving as a shuttle. But extra bike racks will be added at the festival.

∎ Streets will be blocked off near Howard Park, including Jefferson Boulevard and St. Louis Boulevard, where parts of the festival will be staged.

∎ The pedestrian bridge over the river to Howard Park will be closed.

∎ East Race rafting won’t happen this weekend because the street blockages won’t allow rafts to be transported. The final weekend of rafting will be Sept. 16-17.

∎ For more information, visit sbfusionfest.com.

Ethnic Festival timeline

∎ 1974: Ethnic Festival debuts as an outgrowth of plans for the 1976 bicentennial of the United States’ independence. Initially, it was around the July 4 holiday.

∎ 1976: News accounts report 50,000 to 70,000 people in attendance. In future years, it would grow to its peak of 125,000 visitors. It would eventually feature hot air balloons, parades and an array of races on foot, wheelchair and bike. Celebrities would visit, including Mr. McFeely from "Mister Roger’s Neighborhood." Food, the star attraction, ranged from Polish to Pakistani.

∎ 1998: The event moves to a weekend in June and to Howard Park.

∎ 2002: The name changes to Summer in the City because the number of ethnic food vendors had dwindled, thanks to local groups’ difficulties in finding people to work the booths and thanks to changing health requirements. 

∎ 2004: The last Summer in the City is held. Officials end it because of overwhelming issues with vandalism and fights.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Fusion Fest remakes South Bend Ethnic Festival with art Ferris wheel