International Festival

One thing we have really enjoyed since we've moved to South Carolina have been the out door activities and festivals we've gotten to go to.  Wether it is skiing at the lake or spending hours at a food festival, we've loved the people and the weather.  

October 6th was the annual international festival in Spartanburg - about 40 minutes from where we live.  

Many of the first friends we made were international so we heard about this event pretty early on.  Basically, it is an outdoor festival to share/celebrate all of the countries represented in the Spartanburg area by giving everyone an opportunity to enjoy the food and culture of each one.  Many of the people we know are German.  They were working the German food booth (hosted by the German club), so we hung out there most of the time.  They were serving bratwurst with sauerkraut.  It was pretty delicious.

This is one shot of what it looked like.  Each country could have both a food tent and a cultural tent for showing maps, posters, traditional decorations or instruments, etc.  

There were also several stages with bands or other various forms of entertainment throughout the day.  For example, on the stage above I saw a traditional spanish dance.  

Around 1:00 there was a parade.  Each country represented held their flag and many countries had people dressed in traditional outfits accompanied the flag.  

We all laughed because even though there were probably 10-15 Germans there that we knew of alone, only one guy walked with the German flag.  Simon did not jump in with him despite my suggestions :)

 Here is a short clip of the Scottish bagpipe players following their flag during the parade.  

Cool picture threw Patrick's glasses

This is our friend Patrick, who is Austrian, helping Gerhard with the food. 

Along with the country tents, there were a bunch of games throughout the park.  We all tried our hand   at lacrosse which was kind of comical.  This is a giant chess board... incase that wasn't obvious... :)

  

 This is just a random tree, that i thought looked neat, painted on the bottom of a wall on our walk to the festival.   

That was our day with friends at the Spartanburg international festival. 

Another day enjoying life here!