Don't miss Quincy festival - Chinese flower folding, henna tattoos (and food, of course)

QUINCY – Chinese flower folding, Mexican piñatas, henna tattoos and other cultural displays will fill the Fore River Clubhouse in May for a festival highlighting Quincy’s diversity.

The second annual Quincy Multicultural Festival is scheduled for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 13. Quincy families are invited to showcase their heritage, and the event will include performances, displays and food from around the world.

Each table, put together by a Quincy family, will host a different activity. Each child in attendance will get a passport upon arrival and a sticker after participating at a table.

Shivpreet Singh, a Merrymount School parent, is a member of the citywide PTO’s equity, diversity and inclusion subcommittee and the event's organizer. She immigrated to the United States in 2013.

The first festival was held last year, and the turnout was great, Singh said. She said she expected 200 people to come, but more than 1,000 participated.

“It blew our minds,” she said. “It gave us a lot of encouragement. It’s a very multicultural school district, but I also realized that people really hang out amongst their own groups, where they feel safe and comfortable.”

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In 2019, Merrymount School held an international night. That was Singh’s first exposure to how diverse Quincy is, she said, and she presented the idea to hold a similar event at a citywide level. Her daughter was in kindergarten at the time.

Singh said 76 languages are spoken by the families of Quincy Public Schools and 80 different cultures are represented. At last year’s festival, 19 cultures were represented. Singh hopes to double that number this year and said she'll keep pushing to make the festival a yearly event.

This year, the festival is registered as a nonprofit organization and the event will raise money to support families interested in participating. Last year, Singh said a few families didn’t have the money to host a table at the event. This year, Singh and her team will support them with materials and supplies.

The event is a collaboration between Quincy Public Schools and the Quincy Multicultural Festival team.

“It connects people from similar experiences," Singh said. "It exposes us to different cultures and makes us learn different cultures and build trust with each other.”

Singh said families will walk away from the festival knowing they share similar experiences.

“We actually have the same goals for our children. … We can be friends with everybody. This will show us that we are all on the same page,” she said.

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Reach Joel Barnes at jkbarnes@patriotledger.com.