WorldFest, held on September 2 – 4 this year, is an annual international festival organized to bring together all the different varieties of cultures in Louisville, held on Labor Day weekend. The festival is located in downtown Louisville on the Belvedere and hosts the largest gathering of local ethnic foods and exhibitors in the city.

This year, Manual’s field hockey team fundraised at the festival for t-shirts, equipment, and spirit wear. The team sold sodas and water from a large red trailer for a dollar, and worked a Valumarket booth to increase profits.

“This is where all Louisville’s ethnicity comes out. The atmosphere’s really fun and comfortable,” said Taylor Hayes (9), a field hockey player who worked at the team’s trailer.

The festival features multiple acts, including traditional dances such as the Latin Cosa Sera and Comparsa dances, as well as several booths where vendors sell various types of ethnic cuisine.

“I love the people here,” said Haley Arnett (9), another field hockey player who worked at the festival. “They’re all really interesting and diverse, there’s so much variety. I had this thing with chicken and rice and black beans – jerk chicken, I think – that I’d never had before, from a five-star chef, and it was so good,” she said.

Jordan Wolz (10), a Manual student who worked that weekend at the booth for Asiatique, a restaurant owned by his uncle, and has been working Worldfest for five years, enjoyed the atmosphere this year. “It’s really busy, and there’s lots of yelling, and lots of free food. My family’s friends with a lot of the other restaurant owners – they all kind of share food, and try each other’s out,” he said.

Wolz also often attends the festival with friends. “I rather enjoy dancing onstage,” he said. “Anytime I’m here walking around with my friends and they ask for volunteers, I’m somehow always the one my friends volunteer to dance in front of everyone.”

“WorldFest is great because it allows for the intermingling of all the glorious cultures of Louisville,” David Ferguson (11) said, who attended the festival. “I really like the empanadas.”