The Holiday Folk Fair is an annual three-day festival celebrating cultures from around the world. Thousands of visitors attend the Fair each year. It is held the weekend before Thanksgiving in West Allis, Wisconsin, at the Wisconsin Exposition Center of Wisconsin State Fair Park. It is billed as the largest indoor international festival in America. The Fair's goal is to encourage intercultural understanding.
Folk Fair offers continuous entertainment, food from around the world, art displays, vendors, and demonstrations. A visitor can find egg rolls, strudel, scones, falafel, pizzelle, and sushi all under one roof. The main entertainment takes place on two floors, the All Nations Theater and the Music Pavilion. Dancers representing over 30 nations perform for the crowds.
The first Holiday Folk Fair was held on December 10, 1944. Despite a violent snowstorm, 3,500 people braved the weather and took part in the event. In 1947 the Fair became a two-day event, and Friday evenings were added in 1964. The Fair was formerly held at the MECCA Arena. It was also hosted at the Henry Maier Festival Park for one year, before finding a home at State Fair Park.
Folk Fair is sponsored and organized by the International Institute of Wisconsin, a not-for-profit social service agency that promotes cultural understanding. Al Durtka is its current president.
Famous quotes containing the words holiday, folk and/or fair:
“I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.”
—Billie Holiday (1915–1959)
“the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye—
So priketh hem nature in hir corages—
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new,
Good pennyworths,—but money cannot move:
I keep a fair but for the Fair to view,—
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true,”
—Unknown. Fine Knacks for Ladies (l. 7–8)