Columbia International Festival

Today, I visited the Columbia International Festival, day one of a two-day fest. It was meltingly hot and humid but well worth a visit! And the two areas of the festival are both indoors (more or less.)

The Columbia International Festival is held at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds near downtown Columbia. (This is the same place I went for the Rosewood Crawfish Festival.) This festival utilizes two of the buildings on the grounds.

International Bazaar

The first area you come to is a large air-conditioned building with booths from all the participating countries. There are flags, photos, videos, artifacts, whatever the participants can pull together to represent their home country best. You can learn new words, play games, wear hats, pose for pictures – the more you interact, the more you’ll get out of the festival. At at least a few booths, you can get your name written in the native script. I got my name written in Chinese, and it is pretty cool!

The whole space is set up like a big “M” with a one-way path going through. The last leg of the M is for shopping, with everything from African textiles to Russian nesting dolls. There is one booth with paper art that I really liked, but I’m not sure what country it represents. (There are also bathrooms in this building.)

International Food Court

The second area is like a barn, with one open end and huge overhead fans. There is a lot of seating and picnic tables outside the open end and partially under a tent. There are also food-prep tents in this area. Don’t get confused by these – all the food is sold inside.

To buy any food, you have to purchase tickets, so I recommend a walk-through of the food booths before deciding how many tickets you want—$ 1=1 ticket. An ATM is also available because you can only exchange cash for tickets, no cards. Inside, there is food from France, Ghana, Korea, Romania, Germany, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Peru, Ethiopia, and more (those are just the ones I can remember!), plus pizza and sodas.

I ended up spending $20 over the course of 2+ hours. A Ghanaian plate of jollof rice, chicken, and plantains cost me $10, a French crepe was $5, a Pakistani Mango Lassi was $4, and a bottle of water was $1.

Cultural Entertainment

Half of the barn is taken up with the food, while the back half is a stage and seating. During the entire event, traditional dance groups take the stage, one right after the other. There was also a Korean (I think?) and Phillipino MCs that helped move the show along between acts. I was really impressed with everyone I saw. They had to be uncomfortable in the heat! It would be easy to park yourself here all day and watch all the acts if it weren’t so darn hot. I think it’s usually held during April when it’s cooler, so there’s that to look forward to next time!

Parade of Nations

At 2:00, there is a Parade of Nations (with the Olympic theme music and everything!) when all the countries represented parade through the food area and past the stage. There are some beautiful traditional costumes represented here! Mexico and the Virgin Islands really stepped it up today.

To Visit

If you go, the Columbia International Festival is still going on tomorrow, June 6, 2021, from noon-7pm and will return next year (and perhaps in a cooler month.) They do require masks unless you are eating, and there are several announcements to that effect during the festival.

The cost is $7 (and there is a $2 off coupon on their website), and parking at the fairgrounds costs $5. The rest is whatever you eat or buy, but you can enjoy all the entertainment for that $5 entry price. It is a better value than the Crawfish Festival, but it is also more uncomfortable, with more crowds and oppressive heat.