Westchester’s heritage festivals celebrate togetherness in a divided nation

With the Muslim Heritage Festival at the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla on Aug. 27, Westchester County marked the completion of another year of spring and summer Cultural Heritage Celebrations.

There typically have been 10 to 12 festivals in each series over the past several decades, with the county’s Department of Parks at the center of co-sponsoring events and coordinating efforts that involve organizations representing various ethnicities along with cultural groups and businesses that serve as sponsors.

Estimates of the number of people attending have varied widely over the years, from an average of 5,000 per event to more than 200,000 over the course of a season. For many of the attendees, the events are primarily an opportunity to spend a pleasant Sunday outdoors, perhaps with their children or while giving their dog some exercise and also taking a casual glimpse at a different culture, tasting new cuisine and enjoying unique music.

However, there’s also a more profound impact from ethnic festivals such as those staged in Westchester that largely goes unnoticed, especially by those who go the festivals and primarily are concerned with having a good time.

“I think it’s important that we appreciate that Westchester County is really a mosaic of individuals who have many different ethnic backgrounds and in celebrating each of these different groups what we’re doing is celebrating all of them,” Westchester County Executive George Latimer told the Business Journal. “Westchester is the place that welcomes people of different religions, different races, different backgrounds. There’s music, dance, great foods. You see vendors that have great products including articles of clothing that reflect the culture that’s being honored.”

Latimer noted that when the county first started hosting the festivals there were only a couple of the major ethnicities involved. Participation expanded over the years. For 2023, there were 10 festivals: Polish; Asian-American; Albanian; African-American; Hispanic; Irish-American, held at Ridge Road Park in Hartsdale; Italian; India; Jewish; and Muslim. In 2024, a Caribbean festival is expected to be added.

“While there’s county funding of this, there’s private funding of this too,” Latimer said. “These organizations go out and raise money. Various vendors that have booths there pay for that privilege. That money helps fund some of the performers that are there. I think it’s important to see this as a cooperative effort between the private sector and the public sector.”

A fundamental reason why festivals such as take place at Kensico Dam Plaza are important was explained by Beatriz Garcia, associate director of the Centre for Cultural Value at the University of Liverpool in England.

“We are social animals and we need opportunities for collective celebration. Festivals and major cultural events offer such a platform,” Garcia said. “Collective and physical gatherings make a difference. There is profound symbolic value in the opportunity to experience something together as communities. Festivals offer such a platform by condensing our exposure to cultural activities over a specific time and place. Festivals also offer the opportunity for this collective experience to take place among people that may not otherwise meet or believe they have things in common.”

A report on festivals prepared at the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University in Phoenix found that businesses can use festivals for marketing as well as producing instant revenue by selling products on the spot.

“Selling products at these festivals often requires minimal investment of time and capital, while hundreds, and perhaps thousands of visitors may encounter the products of these businesses for the first time,” the report found.

A University of Minnesota Extension study of community festivals said, “Festivals also provide free marketing and advertising for local businesses as visitors talk about their fun experiences when they get back home. The economic benefits of successful festivals ripple throughout a local economy — affecting tourism and non-tourism-related business alike.”

The Minnesota study also said that staging festivals builds bonds among public and private organizations, government, and neighborhood groups and produces connections among elected officials, staff, volunteers and interested residents.

“We go through our list of things that are happening in Westchester. We always point out Bicycle Sunday. We always point out that we have movies on display at Kensico Dam Plaza,” Latimer said. “We have a variety of summertime activities in all of our various parks. Having these ethnic festivals is another one of those highlights. You don’t have to be from Westchester to go. People come in from Connecticut, New Jersey, the city, and have a great time. That helps us economically.”

Latimer said that not only do the festivals offer an opportunity for family-oriented activity but they also afford youngsters the opportunity to experience other cultures and even see their own culture highlighted.

“The motto of the United States in Latin is ‘E Pluribus Unum.’ In English, ‘Out of Many One.’ This is an interesting dynamic in that we are many, we are different, we’re a country that prizes our freedom,” Latimer said. “Out of that multitude there is a oneness. Division in the country over politics and ideology has been exacerbated. What these festivals show is that there are all these different elements that make up the whole. We are together as one America. At these festivals whether it’s the music, the dance, the food or the various products, we’re sharing the same patch of land. We’re standing next to each other and having a good time on a summer afternoon. I think that makes a tremendous statement in response to the divisiveness of the time.”