Dancing, dining and diversity: Cal Poly’s 2024 Culture Fest

Cal Poly’s Multicultural Center hosted their annual Culture Fest on Oct. 26. The festival is a time where multicultural clubs and organizations have the opportunity to booth in the University Union to connect with students through food and music. 

The event is run and operated by Multicultural Center staff and student assistants. Student assistant Alan Servin helped organize the event’s performances by coordinating the acts and planning their practices, but he credits the spirit of the festival to the clubs. 

“Even though we are a PWI, a predominantly white institution, the cultural organizations do a lot to bring culture to the school and it wouldn’t be possible without all the organizations, all the clubs on campus, all the credit goes to them,” he said. 

Most clubs take this event as a time to fundraise and make connections with other cultural organizations on campus. 

“It’s a lot of people that are from other clubs and meeting and talking to everyone else and it’s a fun way to get all the culture [organizations] connected and like, it’s always fun seeing like dances and stuff,” Multiracial Students Association co-president  Pamela Deshayes said. “It’s just like a fun, like environment to be in, it’s a very positive vibe.” 

The Orthodox Christian club, which is closely tied with traditional Greek culture,  invited those attending the festival to dance with them. This year’s dance was led by Tiberiu Stanculescu, a Cal Poly alumni who returns to the festival to enjoy its supportive energy.

“I love that this new generation of kids is just proud of being unique and proud of sharing their culture because I feel like growing up, I mean, maybe it’s because I didn’t really see that myself, but I thought I was kind of the odd one out but seeing all these people embrace their culture and share it with other people…It’s really uplifting, it’s really inspiring,” he said. 

As the afternoon went on, the festival busied with students tending to the food and watching the stage performances. Mesa College sophomore Don Taylor traveled to San Luis Obispo from San Diego to attend the festival and enjoy the food. 

“[I’m having] South Indian food and it’s super good. I ate it in like two seconds, I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “I literally just sat down and I finished it all, it’s super amazing and I’m about to get more.” 

Taylor was in town visiting his girlfriend Vanessa Cardenas, a Cal Poly sophomore. Cardenas heard of Culture Fest through an email invitation she received and decided to bring Taylor because of fond memories of last year’s event. 

“I think everyone should come to Culture Fest,” she said, “I know as cheesy as it sounds, it is really cool and I love trying all the different foods and seeing all the different dances and a lot of people here are really nice so I think it’s a really cool experience for people to come”.