BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:32230@arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit;VALUE=DATE:20240727 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit;VALUE=DATE:20240729 DTSTAMP:20240213T121638Z URL:https://www.arabamerica.com/events/seattle-arab-festival-3/ SUMMARY:Seattle Arab Festival DESCRIPTION:Seattle Arab Festival will take place on July 27-28\, 2024 at t he Armory Food &\; Event Hall. The festival is part of the Seattle Cent er Festál series. It is free and open to the public. More information to come. Seattle Center Festál is a year-round series of 24 free cultural fe stivals\, produced in partnership with community organizations. In 2022\, Festál celebrated 25 years of stories and traditions\, ushering in a new era of hybrid programming. Learn more about Festál and subscribe to the n ewsletter for updates\n\n \;\n\nOVERVIEW\n\nSeattle Center Festál pre sents Seattle Arab Festival in partnership with Seattle Arab Festival (SAF ). The festival features traditional Arab foods\, drinks\, and desserts in side along with a wide array of local and national vendors with fabulous p roducts from or about the Arab world. Visitors will also be delighted by A rabic music\, singing\, dancing and other stage performances.\n\n \;\n \nHISTORY\n\nIn the early 1980's\, Seattle sponsored\, "Ethnic Fest"\, an event held at Northlake Mall for several years. A group of local Arabs alw ays manned a booth until Ethnic Fest ended.\n\nInitially\, the community g athered to combat negative stereotypes of Arabs\, which continued to be pr evalent in the US media around the time of the Gulf War. The Arab Center o f Washington (ACW)\, established in 1992\, was the first organization to p roduce the Seattle Arab Festival. The first festival was held at a private residence in Seattle in 1993. In 1999\, the Arab Festival joined the Fest ál series at the Seattle Center\, which provided ACW with the much needed support and infrastructure to carry out the festival on a larger scale. I n 2018\, after ACW closed its doors\, Seattle Arab Festival (SAF)\, a non- profit organization was created with the specific goal of carrying on the production of the Festival.\n\nThe mission of Seattle Arab Festival is:\n\ n to showcase the diversity\, talent and accomplishments of Arabs and Ara b Americans\n to strengthen the ties among the Arab people with other com munities\n to increase local awareness of Arabs and Arab Americans as nei ghbors\, professionals and leaders\n to promote Arab-owned businesses to make it feel like home and help overcome language barriers where they exis t in the community\n\nPrevious Arab Festivals have always been well-attend ed by the local community\, and have included exhibits by Arab artists\, A rab food demonstrations\, educational and cultural country booths\, childr en’s activities\, dance\, poetry and musical performances by local\, nat ional and international Arabs\, lectures\, movies\, and\, of course\, a pl ethora of Arab food and drink.\n\nThe festival has been a wonderful place for the Arab community to gather and celebrate their lovely and vibrant cu lture that thrives in Seattle and abroad. It’s also been a fabulous plac e for non-Arabs to come and experience a bit of the Arab world.\n\nDID YOU KNOW?\n\nThere are 22 countries in the Arab world including those in the Middle East as well as Western Asia\, North Africa\, and the Horn of Afric a. By definition\, all of the 22 countries have Arabic as an official lang uage\, although some countries include other official languages such as Fr ench\, Kurdish\, Somali\, or Berber.\n\nMany Arabic words can be found in the English language including "cotton"\, "coffee"\, "alcohol" and "lemon" . ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2 024/02/Screen-Shot-2024-02-13-at-7.14.25-AM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20240310T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR