We Found the Festival of India by Chance
When I first booked a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, I had only planned to be there a handful of days, but it turned out I was there for a full week, attending the State of Black Health conference, Diner En Blanc, and spontaneously, the Festival of India.
My family stayed in The Ivey’s Hotel, which is a lovely property I would recommend, but just outside the front doors of the hotel, we walked right into a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors, classical Indian dances, live music and the wonderful aroma of Indian cuisine.
Now, I’m not very familiar with Indian culture, and the little I’ve learned has been through tv and film with shows like Never Have I Ever and movies like RRR, so when I stumbled upon the festival, I was immediately very curious. When purchasing from vendors, I made sure to ask whether there was symbolism to the items I was purchasing, and though there were many beautiful items available for purchase, I also wanted to be careful not to appropriate Indian culture.
I heard a passerby say, “this is how Charlotte looks every weekend,” and in speaking with another local, she let me know that Charlotte frequently has diverse cultural celebrations. Later, I found that this festival, among many others, is part of the Charlotte International Arts Festival (CIAF) initiative whose mission is to bring together Charlotte’s local and international communities.
That would explain the welcoming atmosphere at the Festival of India, where people from all walks of life were being drawn in to dance, shop, and enjoy such a dynamic cultural celebration.
In researching, I discovered that I just missed the Festival of India in my hometown, Richmond, by a couple of weeks. Though I had never heard of or attended this festival before happening upon it in Charlotte, I’m glad to have spontaneously learned about it and feel encouraged to not only attend in the future but to also spend a bit of time learning about a culture that’s mostly unfamiliar to me.
I tend to be more adventurous when I’m in a new city or country, but learning that a similar festival exists in my hometown nudges me to think of ways I can lean into spontaneity even when I’m not traveling.
That, to me, is the beauty of traveling—the opportunity to learn and discover a world much larger than what you know and allowing it to inform your daily practice. In the current state of the world where many things are divisive, seeing people unified to honor and celebrate each other’s cultures can be an antidote to that division.
