Sandra Kikuchi used to be a volunteer for the Asian-Pacific Festival. This year, she's the chairwoman.
"The festival is an opportunity to interact with a multitude of Asian cultures," Kikuchi, who is of Japanese descent, said in an interview. "We all come together at this time of the year to attain a common goal - putting on the festival."The festival is Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Salt Palace Convention Center.
Kikuchi, who is a professor at the University of Utah's department of social work, said this year's festival will have more hands-on displays for vistors this year than in the past.
"We want to have the people who attend the festival experience the cultures instead of just seeing them," Kikuchi said. "Caligraphy, origami and board games are just a few of the displays we'll be offering. We'll have a teahouse, and, yes, there will be an abundance of food."
The ox is the symbol of this year's Asian zodiac. And there will be ox-inspired games for children in the children's corner this year, said Kikuchi.
"Yes, we'll have an ox-chip throwing contest," she said with a laugh. "There will be wagon rolling and herding excersizes, too."
This year will mark the first time India and Tibet will be represented in the festival.
There will be a special sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi that will be unveiled at a special ceremony at the International Peace Gardens, 1000 South and 900 West, prior to the festival at 9:30 a.m.
"This project, which is called the Gandhi Project, was to celebrate India's 50th year of independence," said Babu Narasimhan of the India Forum of Utah.
The ceremony's guests of honor are Gov. Mike Leavitt and C.R. Balachandra, the Consul General of India, Narasimhan said.
"We would like to welcome those communities to the festival," Kikuchi said.
In addition to Kikuchi, who will give the welcoming speech, Salt Lake County commissioner Randy Horiuchi will help emcee.
"One of the goals we had as a planning committee was for the festival to have the same amount of support from the Salt Lake area as it had in the past," Kikuchi said. "And we feel it has carried over from the past 20 years."