Fusion Fest blends spicy flavors and city's global diversity, except for one fight

SOUTH BEND — Kelly Burgèt didn’t have to nudge the culture-hungry audience. Not much.

“It’s not what you can or cannot do,” she said, urging many dozens of people to stomp and swing with her local West African dance troupe, UZIMA!, as they stepped down from the stage to the blocked-off pavement of St. Louis Boulevard. “It’s about all of us coming together to celebrate each other.”

The crowd immediately joined the dance circle Saturday as global flavors filled Howard Park for the city’s new Fusion Fest.

Under the North America tent, an African American singer crooned the late Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” and people in the audience mouthed along.

The two-day fest debuted Saturday as large crowds mellowed out with music, crafts and food for each continent grouped under brilliant, fancifully patterned shade tents.

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

Food was a star. After all, this is a reincarnation of the beloved, food-centered Ethnic Festival that ran from 1974 to 2004.

John Pangani dished up jerk chicken, meat pies, plantains and other spicy goodness that, on his trailer, was labeled “Taste of Caribbean and Beyond.” But Pangani is a clever purveyor of his own culture. This cuisine blends flavors and styles from his native Malawi, a small southern African country, and the proceeds here all benefit primary schools and sanitation projects in Malawi through his Pangani Foundation.

Tamara Martin of South Bend was ordering some of it. As she recalled memories of the Ethnic Festival, she found a fondness for the new Fusion Fest. She liked the attention to safety, with metal detectors at the two entrances. She felt it’s more family friendly, too, because it seemed there was more room for kids and strollers and more places to rest and eat.

“South Bend is very diverse,” she reflected. “We’re all here to respect each other. This is a good way to do it. It’s important because we’re more accepting of cultures and ethnicities (than in the 1970s and 1980s). I feel like there’s no division here. People are talking with each other, no matter what race they are.”

Fireworks canceled

South Bend Police estimate that a total of roughly 30,000 people visited across Saturday and Sunday, city spokeswoman Allison Zeithammer said. Both days proved to be popular, drawing large crowds that spread evenly and peacefully throughout the festival complex.

But, in what appeared to be an isolated incident, there was a small fight between “mostly juveniles” within the festival grounds at about 9 p.m. Saturday, just as crews were preparing fireworks, police spokeswoman Ashley O’Chap said. It started with just a couple of juveniles, she said, but then about two to three dozen other people gathered around.

Four juvenile girls were actively involved in the fight, which didn’t include any weapons. Police detained all four and later released them to their guardians, O’Chap said. The only injury was to an officer who had a hand injury.

As a result, the city canceled the fireworks “out of an overabundance of caution” so crowds could safely disperse from the festival, she said.

Fusion Fest, O’Chap said, “was still, by and large, a good success, especially compared with events in the past.”

Police were often visible at the festival, which had just two entrances with metal detectors, all as a precaution against the kind of fights and vandalism that had led the city to ultimately close the former Ethnic Festival, which had been renamed Summer in the City.

“The Venues Parks & Arts team put together an amazing event today, and our officers worked hard to keep it both welcoming and safe," Zeithammer said on Saturday. “We share the community’s disappointment that the planned fireworks show didn’t happen.”

Colorful and vibrant

It didn't dampen the festival's mood.

“I’m impressed that there’s this much diversity in this small town,” Irais Ferreira said Saturday afternoon, having danced with her 5-year-old daughter, Mia, underneath the colorful big tent of South American cultures as the local Latin-soul fusion band Lalo Cura played on stage. “I want to show my children.”

Having just moved to South Bend two months ago, Ferreira came with her husband and three kids, ages 1 to 5, all wearing the colorfully embroidered shirts of their native Mexico.

Michelle Arias, 25, who came from Venezuela two years ago, emerged from paddling on the 20-seat dragon boat on the St. Joseph River — maybe her second time on any kind of boat — and said, “That was amazing.”

Now living in Elkhart, she laughed, saying she felt like she almost tipped (likely not on the big canoe) and got splashed. The boat, which the city of Fort Wayne has used to expose more people to its rivers, gives a new view of river life. Arias saw plants in the water and a bobbing apple (‘tis the season).

Tulin Sahin Babaoglu, of Mediterranean Michiana, drizzled an iridescent red-purple beet sauce over a sampler dish that she was serving.

Her husband, Serhan Babaoglu, said they are from Istanbul but now live in South Bend. They normally serve in local farmers’ markets. He praised the fest for being well organized, saying, “You can tell the organizers really care about the vendors and the people’s experience.”

“It’s colorful, it’s vibrant,” he said of the fest. “Everybody seems happy and open to trying new things.”

Grace Baker, 35, of South Bend had to try the Babaoglus’ food. She had made a couple of short visits to Istanbul when she’d studied in Europe during college.

“I just love the food, and anytime I’m around it, I want to try it,” she said of Mediterranean cuisine.

And because she works in restaurants, she added, “We need to support these places so they can have brick and mortar shops. We need people in numbers. Bring this energy.”

Jolene Coates of South Bend nibbled Saturday on warm plantains and shredded cabbage from the Caribbean. She relished the shade tents and breeze — something that the often-hot Ethnic Festival wasn’t known for, as she recalled — and liked Fusion Fest well enough to add, “I want to come back to Africa tomorrow.”

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: South Bend Fusion Fest brought food and diversity to Howard Park